D-Wave Quantum arrives at its June 1 earnings report with a striking internal contradiction: the stock has added another 15% on the week and 57% over the past month to close at $29.49, yet insiders are selling aggressively and a large short base refuses to budge.
The insider activity is the sharpest new signal since the previous notes. CFO John Markovich sold 328,752 shares on May 22 for roughly $9.1 million — the single largest insider disposal in the recent window. CEO Alan Baratz sold 18,542 shares on May 13. The Chief Legal Officer and an EVP also sold in the same fortnight. Net insider disposals over 90 days total more than $12.8 million. These are not token option exercises; the CFO alone sold a position worth nine figures at current prices. That cluster of C-suite selling into the rally is a material development the previous notes did not capture.
The short base has eased slightly but remains formidable. SI % of Free Float has dipped to 15.1% from 15.9% flagged in the prior note — roughly 52 million shares — down about 16% over the past month as the stock surged. That's a partial cover, not capitulation. Borrow availability has tightened further to 24%, down from the 27% level noted last week and from above 50% in mid-May. That means fewer than one share remains available for every four already borrowed — a progressively narrower pool for anyone wanting to initiate new short positions. Cost to borrow remains low at under 1%, so the squeeze economics aren't extreme, but the directional trend in availability is unmistakably tighter. The ORTEX short score of 67 confirms elevated short-side pressure.
Options positioning offers little drama by comparison. The put/call ratio is running at 0.72, just above its 20-day average of 0.70 — a modest uptick but nowhere near defensive territory. That mild skew suggests options traders are not hedging aggressively, even with the print two sessions away. The contrast with the insider selling is notable: the derivatives market looks relaxed while the people running the company are converting stock to cash at pace.
Analysts who reacted to the last print — which saw the stock fall 11% on the day and 24% over five sessions — trimmed targets but held Buy-equivalent ratings. Canaccord cut its target to $41, Mizuho moved to $29 (now roughly in line with the current price), while Needham and Cantor Fitzgerald held targets of $40. The mean target of $35.17 is now below where QBTS was trading intraday on May 29, which removes the near-term upside cushion that had existed. Bulls still point to bookings growth, partnerships, and early-mover status in commercial quantum annealing. Bears flag persistent losses, dilution risk, and the fact that larger tech rivals are accelerating their own quantum programmes.
The June 1 print therefore tests whether the recent rally has any fundamental support — or whether it is pure sentiment, priced into a stock that its own executives are selling as fast as the lock-up and trading-window rules allow.
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