SUNation Energy Inc. heads into next week's earnings with short sellers in full retreat — but the borrow market tells a more complicated story.
Short interest has collapsed by 20% over the past week, falling from nearly 16% of the free float on May 5 to 10.3% today. That is a dramatic unwind. Yet zooming out just six weeks reveals just how extraordinary the build-up was: in early April, short interest was barely 1.3% of the float. It vaulted to a peak above 15% in under a month — a rise of nearly 800% — before this week's reversal began.
The borrow market confirms the frenzy has eased, though conditions remain firmly in "expensive" territory. Cost to borrow has plunged from a peak above 220% APR in early April to roughly 17.6% now — still elevated, but a fraction of what shorts were paying at the height of the squeeze pressure. Availability is running at 137% of short interest, which is tight rather than comfortable. That reading means there are only about 1.4 shares available to borrow for every share currently shorted — the lending pool is not under strain right now, but it is not loose either. The ORTEX short score of 68.3 has drifted down from a recent high of 73.1 on May 5, tracking the short interest decline, but still sits in elevated territory.
The earnings context makes the timing of this unwind notable. SUNation reports on May 22 — six days from now. The company's recent earnings history has been explosive. The March 19 print sent the stock up 65% the next day and 120% over the following five days. The March 18 announcement logged a 47% single-day move. The one exception was late March, when a different release produced a 35% single-day fall and a 42% five-day decline. This is a stock with extreme post-earnings volatility in both directions. The current short-interest retreat could reflect short sellers reducing exposure ahead of that risk, rather than any fundamental view shift.
Ownership is thin and concentrated. CEO Scott Maskin holds 16.3% of shares, with fellow insider James Brennan at a further 3.6%. Institutional representation is minimal — Vanguard holds 1.9% but made no change in the last reporting period, and Citadel's position dates to December 2025. At a market cap of roughly $5.6 million, this is a micro-cap name where insider ownership dominates the float. Insider trade data is stale (last recorded December 2024), so no fresh directional read is available from that source.
The key dynamic to watch is whether the short interest unwind continues into the May 22 print, or whether fresh short positions re-emerge if the stock rallies into the event. Given the history of violent moves in both directions, availability in the borrow market is the leading indicator — any tightening below 50% in the days ahead would signal renewed short demand ahead of the release.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open SUNE 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.
