New Age Beverages Corp (NBEV US) short interest is $46.17 million, with 12.75 million shares shorted, for 24.30% of float.
Stock borrow fees are easing as more lendable inventory are hitting the street. Stock borrow fees averaged a 36% fee over the first three quarters of 2018, hit a 120% fee in late September, and averaged over a 46% fee in early November. They have now dropped to 27.69% fee. Average NBEV short interest for the year has only been $21 million, but those short sellers have paid just over $7 million in stock borrow costs.
Shares shorted has increased by 9.1 million shares in the 3rd & 4th quarters, for a 253% increase, and by 1.5 million shares in November, a 13% increase – virtually all of November’s short selling has occurred in the last week.
Shorts are making back the losses they incurred over the first three quarters when they were down $22 million in mark-to-market losses. They are up $25 million in the 4th quarter, and $10 million in November.
We are seeing strong short selling today, over 500k shares sold short, even as NBEV’s stock price is slightly up today. It looks like short conviction is climbing and we should see continued price weakness in the stock if shorts continue to be active.
