T Stamp Inc. heads into its May 22 earnings call with short interest on the rise and the stock bruised by a Q1 miss — a combination that puts the next release under sharp scrutiny.
The fundamental picture explains much of the week's pressure. T Stamp's Q1 10-Q, filed on May 14, showed net recognised revenue up 39% year-on-year — solid pipeline growth for a small-cap identity-verification software company. But the headline numbers disappointed: EPS came in at -$0.42 versus the -$0.39 estimate, and sales of $756,832 missed the $1.05M consensus. The stock fell 7.4% on Friday alone, closing at $2.14, and is now down 10.5% on the week and 16.4% over the past month. The revenue growth story is real; translating it into numbers that clear the bar is the recurring challenge.
Short sellers are rebuilding positions following the miss. SI climbed 22% over the past week to roughly 3.9% of the free float — a meaningful bounce after a month-long decline that had pulled the figure down from above 4.5%. At just over 200,000 shares short, the absolute level is modest, and the ORTEX short score of 56.6 sits in the middle of its range. The borrow market is not stressed: the cost to borrow has actually eased sharply, falling a third over the past month to 2.7% APR, its lowest level in the period tracked. Availability is at roughly half the lending pool — not tight by any measure — suggesting the recent SI build reflects a tactical short rather than a crowded, high-conviction squeeze setup.
The one genuinely notable positioning signal is that short interest just jumped 22% in a week even as the stock was already falling. That's an addition to a position, not a fresh pile-on at elevated prices — shorts added shares at weaker levels after the earnings print, which is worth watching ahead of the May 22 call.
Analyst coverage is thin and stale: the sole data point on record is a Maxim Group Buy rating with a $12.00 price target, last updated in September 2025 — eight months ago. Given the stock closed at $2.14 this week, that target looks deeply dated and should not be treated as current guidance. The EPS surprise factor score ranks in the 87th percentile, meaning T Stamp has historically beaten estimates more often than most of its peers; the Q1 miss is therefore a notable break from that pattern rather than a routine outcome. The broader factor picture is mixed: the ORTEX short score sits at just the 16th percentile for short-side pressure, and days-to-cover ranks in the 8th percentile — both consistent with a lightly shorted, low-conviction bearish setup rather than a building structural short.
Insider activity from April 6 is worth a brief note. CEO Gareth Genner sold approximately 18,500 shares at $2.60 — modest in dollar terms at around $48,000 — while simultaneously receiving a substantial equity award of over 106,000 shares. The CFO and Chairman both received stock awards as well. The net 90-day insider position is positive at roughly 62,850 shares, driven largely by the awards. The sells are small enough that they read as routine rather than a directional signal. Among institutional holders, Long Lake Capital Management and Galloway Capital Partners each hold around 8% and 7.5% of shares respectively, making ownership highly concentrated at the top.
Correlated peers painted a broadly similar picture this week. BMNR fell 9.7% on the day and ARQQ dropped 3.8%, while BTBT was the week's outlier with a near-flat performance. The sector backdrop provided no cushion.
The May 22 earnings call is now the dominant near-term catalyst — the question being whether the 39% revenue growth rate can be sustained while the path to profitability narrows the gap between reported and estimated EPS.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open IDAI 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.
