iPower Inc. reports after the close tomorrow with one of the most charged short-side setups in the small-cap universe — short interest at 30.7% of the free float and a borrow market that has been through an extraordinary cycle in the past six weeks.
The short positioning is substantial and has been climbing fast. SI hit 30.7% of the free float on May 18, up from around 19% in late April — a surge driven in large part by renewed borrow demand after a brief mid-April dip. The ORTEX short score is pinned at 78.8, near the top decile of the entire universe, and has barely moved in the past two weeks, signalling the bearish positioning is persistent rather than opportunistic. The borrow market tells an equally dramatic story, though it has shifted direction sharply. Cost to borrow peaked above 310% in mid-April — a near-extreme reading — and has since collapsed to 48.2%, down more than 75% over the past month. Availability, which briefly dropped to nearly zero in early April, has eased back to 84.7%, suggesting the acute squeeze conditions that defined April have unwound. Bears can now build or add positions at a fraction of what it cost six weeks ago.
The stock has paid the price. IPW has lost 31% over the past month, closing Tuesday at $0.79. That drop follows a bruising earnings history: three of the last four post-print reactions have been negative, including a one-day plunge of nearly 34% following the February 2026 release, which extended to a five-day loss of 43%. The one positive reaction — a 2.7% gain in April 2026 — faded within a week into a 4.5% decline. The pattern is consistent: this is a name that has struggled to reward holders through the earnings window.
Ownership is highly concentrated, with founders Chenlong Tan and Allan Huang each holding roughly 19-20% of shares outstanding. That concentration leaves a relatively thin float for short sellers to borrow against, which explains why availability dropped so sharply in April even with moderate absolute short share counts. No institutional activity of note has emerged recently, and insider data is stale beyond November 2025, when an equity award was made to the CEO at no cost — not a signal of conviction buying ahead of results.
Tomorrow's print is ultimately a test of whether IPower's fundamentals can arrest a narrative dominated by short sellers who have been willing to pay triple-digit borrow rates to hold their positions — and who, even as the cost has eased, show no sign of covering.
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