MOBX enters its May 15 earnings call with one of the most stressed borrow markets in its history. Cost to borrow more than doubled in a single day. Short shares are up 68% in one month. The ORTEX short score sits at 78.5 — a level that ranks the stock in the top percentile of the entire market.
The headline number is stark. Cost to borrow jumped from 40.6% on May 12 to 88.4% on May 13 — a 118% move in 24 hours. That's more than double the rate from a week ago.
Over the past month, CTB is up 63%. The borrow market was already tight. Now it's close to its tightest in over a year.
Availability has compressed sharply alongside it. With utilization at 94.9% and having touched 100% on May 5 and 6, the lending pool is nearly exhausted. Fewer than one share remains available for every 20 already borrowed — conditions typical of a severe borrow squeeze.
Short interest hit 2.95% of free float as of May 13. That's up 30% week-on-week and 68% over the past month. The pace of accumulation is the signal here. Bears have been adding consistently since late April, even as the stock fell 28% over the same period.
The ORTEX short score reached 78.5, ranking MOBX in the top 1% of all stocks by short pressure. The score has climbed every session for the past two weeks.
MOBX reports Thursday, May 15 at 13:30 UTC. The last four earnings prints all moved the stock negatively. The March 2026 report saw a -4.8% day-one move and a -29.3% five-day decline. The January report: -12.4% on day one, -14.1% over five days.
That track record matters. Short sellers are not adding at random — they are building ahead of a catalyst with a consistent history of downside. The doubling of CTB in 24 hours suggests fresh demand for borrows, not just rolling of existing positions.
The Acting CEO, Philip Sansone, sold 9,541 shares on April 30. The CFO, Keyvan Samini, sold 211,672 shares in January. Every disclosed insider transaction in the past 12 months has been a sale. No insider purchases are on record in the dataset.
That is not a directional call — insiders sell for many reasons. But combined with the lending market stress and the pre-earnings short build, it is a data point worth noting.
What to watch: Whether CTB stabilises or pushes higher before the May 15 print will indicate whether new borrow demand is still entering the market — or whether short positioning has peaked ahead of the catalyst.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
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