InnovAge Holding Corp. enters mid-June with an unusual split: the stock is up 6.5% on the week to $7.69, yet insiders are selling and short interest is climbing at its fastest pace in months.
The most striking development is on the short side — not because the level is extreme, but because of the speed. Short interest was under 1% of the free float as recently as early May. It has now jumped 74% in a month and 30% in a single week, reaching roughly 1.35 million shares short. That rapid build is worth watching even if the absolute level remains modest. Cost to borrow has stayed anchored near 0.5%, and availability is deeply loose at over 2,500% — meaning there are roughly 25 shares available to borrow for every one already shorted. The lending market is not stressed at all. Shorts are building positions with ease, not fighting for borrow.
Options positioning leans the other way. The put/call ratio is running at just 0.03, well below its 20-day average of 0.04, and near the lowest level of the past year. That's a strikingly call-heavy configuration, suggesting options traders see more upside than downside. The contrast between rising short interest and almost no put protection is the defining tension in the current setup.
The Street offers little fresh guidance. The most recent meaningful analyst action was JP Morgan raising its target to $7.00 while keeping an Underweight rating back in February — a grudging acknowledgment that the stock had outrun the bear thesis, but not a change in conviction. The current price at $7.69 now trades above that target, which puts the only visible benchmark slightly behind the tape. Earlier data from Goldman Sachs and others is too stale to carry weight. The ORTEX short score has climbed steadily from 38.3 to 44.5 over the past two weeks, reflecting the buildup in short positioning, though it remains well within a neutral range overall.
Insider activity over the past week adds a cautionary note. The President, Patrick Blair, and Chief Legal Officer, Nicole D'Amato, both sold shares on June 4 and 5 at prices between $7.20 and $7.30 — just below the current close. The transactions were small in dollar terms (the largest was around $108,000), and all were rated low significance by the data. But the timing is notable: two senior executives trimming into the same brief window, at prices the stock has since moved past.
The next earnings event is scheduled for September 8. Between now and then, the key question is whether the short interest build continues to accelerate — and whether the cost to borrow or availability tightens as more positions accumulate — or whether the recent momentum draws in enough buyers to absorb the pressure.
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