BAOB: A Quiet Regional Bank With Little to Watch

The Baraboo Bancorporation is one of the quieter names in the regional banking universe — a micro-cap community lender trading on the OTC Pink market with almost no short-side activity and no near-term catalyst on the horizon.

The stock closed at $6.44 on April 27, up 1.4% on the week. That modest gain is the most interesting price event in recent memory for a name that has moved less than 1% over the past month. There are no upcoming earnings dates, no analyst coverage, and no options market to speak of. This is a stock that trades by appointment.

Short interest is essentially a non-factor here. FINRA's most recent fortnightly report, dated April 15, shows just 14 shares short — a number so small it is effectively rounding error. The lending market reflects this. Availability is completely wide open, with every share in the borrow pool currently unlent. The 52-week peak utilization reached just 67%, and the current reading is zero. There is no short-side conviction in this name at any measurable level.

The most notable institutional presence is North Star Asset Management, which held 83,779 shares as of December 31 — representing roughly 0.95% of shares outstanding. That makes North Star the sole institutional holder on record. The ownership picture is narrow and concentrated, typical of a community bank of this size. Dividend history shows quarterly payments of $0.02 per share running through mid-2022, but no dividend events have been recorded since, and that data is now over three years old.

One data caveat worth flagging: short interest and cost-to-borrow readings in the snapshot date to November 2025 — nearly six months ago. The short score of 37.95 carries the same timestamp. These figures describe a position from last autumn, not the current week, and should be treated accordingly. The only fresh data is utilization, which confirms the borrow market remains fully unoccupied today.

For a stock this thinly covered, the main thing to watch is any regulatory filing, earnings release, or change in dividend policy — events that, for a community bank, tend to be the primary price movers when they do arrive.