MediaCo Holding Inc. has been the scene of a dramatic short-seller retreat over the past month — and with shares nudging back toward the $1 mark, that unwind is the week's defining story.
Short interest has collapsed. At just 0.016% of the free float — essentially negligible — the current level represents an 80% drop from a month ago and a 63% drop from last week alone. In early April, estimated short shares outstanding were running above 67,000; by May 14 that number is down to 12,158. Whatever pressure had built up on the bearish side has largely unwound.
The lending market reflects this disengagement entirely. Availability is wide open. Borrowing costs run at roughly 1.9% annualised — off their recent range closer to 2.3–2.5% — and borrow availability faces no meaningful constraint. The short score has also pulled back sharply, declining from 33.7 on May 1 to 26.7 by May 14, a reading that places the stock well below crowded-short territory. The ORTEX short-score rank sits at the 91st percentile, meaning the majority of comparable names carry a higher short score than MDIA does right now — another way of saying shorts have largely stepped away.
The price action tells a parallel story. MDIA closed at $0.9481 on May 15, up 15.6% over the past month but down fractionally on the week. A sub-$1 handle means the stock remains in micro-cap, high-volatility territory — the RSI14 is a reasonably neutral 61, suggesting the recent bid has not yet tipped into overbought. Year-to-date, shares are up 63.5%, a move that almost certainly contributed to the short covering visible in the ORTEX estimates.
Ownership here is heavily concentrated. Standard General L.P. holds close to 50% of shares, with BlackRock holding another 43% — together those two names account for roughly 93% of the register. That degree of concentration leaves a minimal public float, which partly explains why short interest, measured in absolute share terms, looks so small. It also means the liquidity picture can change quickly. With the next scheduled event being a FY 2025 results announcement flagged for August 11, recent earnings history is worth noting: the March 31 release produced an 11.8% single-day gain and extended to 12.6% over five sessions, while the April 17 print gave back 2% before recovering 7.8% over the following week.
The setup heading into summer is one of waning short pressure, tightly held float, and a price that has done the heavy lifting — the question for the August print is whether the fundamental story behind the covering holds at current levels.
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