PER insiders keep buying as short interest collapses

Peruvian Metals Corp. enters the final day of April with a striking divergence: the people closest to the company have been steadily accumulating shares, while the small pool of short sellers that existed a month ago has almost entirely disappeared.

The most compelling story here is insider ownership. CEO and Chairman Jeffrey Reeder has been buying continuously since January — small purchases in January, a cluster of larger buys in late February at CAD $0.10, and follow-on purchases in mid-March at slightly higher prices. Reeder's 90-day net position adds up to roughly 1.1 million shares, bringing his declared holding to more than 11.3 million shares, or 7.76% of the company. Independent Director Steven Brunelle added 250,000 shares on February 26 alongside Reeder's largest single purchase of 450,000 shares on the same day. When the CEO and a board director buy together at the same price on the same date, the coordination is worth noting. The stock has since risen from that CAD $0.10 entry to close at CAD $0.185 on April 29 — a gain of 85% off that level, though this week has given back some of that ground, with a 5.1% drop on Wednesday and a 9.8% fall across the full week.

Short interest tells an almost negligible story. Estimated shares short collapsed from around 257,000 in early April to just 10,355 by April 21 — a 96% drop over the month. At that level, short interest is effectively zero relative to the float at 0.008% of free float. This is not a short-squeeze setup; there is simply no meaningful short position left to unwind. Cost to borrow dropped sharply too, falling to 5.3% on April 28 from roughly 10% at the start of the week — a 44% decline in seven days. That easing in borrowing costs reinforces the picture: demand to borrow the stock has dried up. The lending market is loose, with availability well above any stress threshold and utilization essentially flat at zero.

The company itself has been active. Peruvian Metals raised $900,000 at end of March to expand its Aguila Norte processing plant in Peru — the core development catalyst. On April 22 it also engaged Apollo Shareholder Relations for investor communications work, a common move ahead of a broader marketing push. The next earnings event falls on May 29, with the history showing mixed single-day reactions — a 10.9% drop and an 8.5% gain in the two most recent prints — so the upcoming release carries some binary event risk even if the stock is lightly followed.

The factor scores add texture. The days-to-cover rank scores in the 83rd percentile and the utilization rank in the 88th, both reflecting how tightly the float is held and how little short activity remains. The short score itself is a relatively low 30.8 out of 100, consistent with a stock where the bear thesis has largely been abandoned. Among correlated peers on the TSXV, KG dropped 7.9% on the week and AE fell 1.8%, suggesting broader sector pressure on junior miners — context for PER's own weekly decline rather than a company-specific deterioration.

The setup heading into May is one of CEO-led accumulation, a nearly empty short book, and a financing round still being absorbed by the market. The May 29 earnings release will be the next moment to gauge whether the Aguila Norte expansion narrative is gaining traction with a wider investor base.