Short Report: Bears test AI ‘nuclearization’ thesis, add to Oklo shorts

Welcome to this week’s installment of “The Short Interest Report” – The Fly’s weekly recap of short interest trends among some of the most widely followed high-short-float stocks. Using the data from our partner Ortex.com, which utilizes the latest information from stock lenders to estimate short interest changes for thousands of publicly traded companies, this report will screen for some of biggest changes in short interest as a percentage of free float and days-to-cover ratios while also considering the short interest data on some of the more volatile and heavier-traded names of the week. Based on the availability of data from Ortex, the report tracks the trading period that covers prior Friday through Thursday of this week, excluding holidays. As a basis of comparison for stocks discussed below, the S&P 500 index was down 0.8%, the Nasdaq Composite was down 1.8%, the Russell 2000 index was down 0.3%, the Russell 2000 Growth ETF (IWO) was down 1.0%, and the Russell 2000 Value ETF (IWN) was up 0.5% in the five-day trading session range through January 30.

SHORT INTEREST GAINERS

• Ortex-reported short interest on Oklo (OKLO) had troughed at a roughly two-month low of around 17% on January 13th and then slipped to that level again late last week, before bouncing from 19% last Thursday all the way up to a 27% high to end the week. The all-time high in estimated short interest was at 36% reported in the last week of December. The stock has been tapped among the front-runners to power what one of the pre-eminent AI evangelists, Wedbush’s Dan Ives – who had bumped up his price target on OKLO from $26 to $46 late last week – calls the fourth Industrial Revolution, with its buildout of “small modular nuclear reactors” coming to the forefront of the energy transition. While shares have quadrupled in a span of three months, the bears are willing to test that proposition. Oklo was up 8% in the five-day period covered through Thursday as the stock quickly erased the 25% drop associated with DeepSeek panic on Monday, and had extended the run on Friday to hit an all-time high above $45, before headlines regarding the launch of Trump tariffs spooked investors.
• Estimated short interest on Intuitive Machines (LUNR) had fallen to a six-month low of 16% just three weeks ago as bulls took some profits on late December run in the second week of January, though with shares moving upward again, bears are also increasing their exposure. Shorts as a percentage of free float was up from 26.3% to 33.4% in the five-day period covered while days to cover on the name was up from 0.8 to 1.1. Intuitive Machines shares, meanwhile, gained about 1% in five trading days through Thursday before slipping 3% on Friday, though the stock is still up 15% this year.
• Ortex-reported short interest on Sana Biotechnology (SANA) jumped from 30.6% to 37.6%, with bears positioning to further fade the sharp gains in shares seen just over three weeks ago. Recall the stock had tripled in a single day on January 8 following initial results from its type 1 diabetes study that followed a transplant of Sana’s UP421, an “allogeneic primary islet cell therapy engineered with Sana’s hypoimmune technology, into a patient with type 1 diabetes”, which had earned scores of positive commentary from analysts covering the name. Shares have since pared about half of those gains however while volumes have normalized. This week, Sana shares are trading flat.
• Ortex-reported short interest on value digital insurer Lemonade (LMND) had spent the past six weeks locked in a tight range of 25%-27% as its stock price continued to descend from late November highs. This week, however, shorts as a percentage of free float for the name jumped four percentage points to 31.4% despite the absence of unusual volatility in shares or a spike in volume. Bearish level of expression matches the high going back to early October, which had preceded the doubling of the stock in November. This week, shares of Lemonade were up about 2%, though year-to-date, the stock is down 13%.

SHORT INTEREST DECLINERS

• Ortex-reported short interest on Fiverr (FVRR) sank from 24% all the way down to 15% this week – the lowest level since August. The move also tracks exchange-reported data on the stock out two week ago, which saw shorts as a percentage of free float shrinking significantly. Shares of the digital marketplace for freelancers has hardly budged after the stock had surrendered all of its pandemic-infused gains, though the stock did respond very positively to the company’s last earnings report in October, and Fiverr is on tap to present its Q4 in mid-February. The week, the stock was down about 1%, and year-to-date, Fiverr is off by nearly 3%.