A 10% owner just bought $5 million of stock. The borrow market tells a different story entirely.
KDK (Kodiak AI, Inc.) is caught in a rare tug-of-war. The lending market has effectively frozen — every share available to borrow is already lent out. Yet a major shareholder is buying aggressively, and options traders are stacking calls.
Availability has hit 0%. Every share in the lending pool is deployed. That is the tightest the borrow market has been all year, matching the 52-week extreme.
Cost to borrow reflects that scarcity. CTB reached 160.8% APR on May 12, up 557% over the prior week. As recently as May 4, it sat at 25.1%. The jump from 53.7% on May 8 to 160.8% by May 12 was sharp and sudden.
Short interest has climbed with it. SI % of FF reached 3.16% as of May 12, up 19.4% week-on-week and 13.6% over the past month. At 3.16% of float, the level itself is modest. But the velocity — combined with a fully exhausted lending pool — is not.
The ORTEX short score has moved in lockstep. It stood at 79.1 on May 4 and rose to 83.7 by May 12. That puts it in elevated territory and the move came fast.
On May 8, AAC II Holdings II LP — a 10% owner — bought 769,230 shares at $6.50, spending just under $5 million. That day was also when KDK reported earnings, with the stock falling 18% on the print.
The buyer stepped in on the weakness. That is a deliberate signal from a holder with significant existing exposure.
The put-call ratio hit 0.1807 on May 13. That is 2.59 standard deviations above the 20-day mean of 0.1297. A low PCR means calls dominate. Options traders are positioned toward upside, not protection.
The 52-week range for the PCR is 0.0568 to 0.3255. The current read is elevated relative to recent history but well within the annual range — call activity is up, not extreme.
Two analyst actions followed the earnings miss. Citigroup's Michael Ward cut his target from $13.50 to $11.00 on May 13. Chardan's James McIlree cut from $22.00 to $15.00 on May 8. Both maintained Buy ratings.
The consensus target now sits at $12.40 — versus a close of $7.99 on May 13. That is 55% implied upside from the current price.
Key data — KDK as of May 12–13, 2026
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open KDK on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
The lending market for KDK has effectively frozen. Cost to borrow exploded to 160.8% APR — up 557% in a single week — and availability has collapsed to zero. Every share in the lending pool is currently lent out. There…
