5 Short Squeeze Candidates To Watch: Petros Pharmaceuticals, iSpecimen Top The List Again

Potential short squeeze plays have gained steam in 2021 with new retail traders looking for the next huge movie. GameStop Corp GME and AMC Entertainment Holdings AMC are two high-profile examples of short squeezes earlier this year.

A short squeeze can occur when a heavily shorted stock rises in value instead of falling. Short sellers could be looking to close out their position and can face a loss if they have to buy back the shares they initially borrowed at a higher price.

A squeeze can occur when short sellers are forced on buying in to cover their position, which has caused shares to go much higher on many occasions.

Fintel Data: Data from Fintel, which requires a subscription, provides a look at several of the top shorted stocks and data showing how likely a short squeeze is to occur. 

This week’s leaderboard stays very close to last week’s with the top two names being the same and four of the five names appearing in last week’s list. Here is a look at Fintel’s top five short squeeze candidates for the week of Dec. 20.

Petros Pharmaceuticals: Men’s health pharmaceutical company Petros Pharmaceuticals PTPI tops the Fintel short squeeze leaderboard for the second straight week. Fintel shows 24.45% of the company’s float as short, up 2,470% from last month. The cost to borrow PTPI shares is 268% this week, up from last week’s already high and possible record 254%. Fintel said institutional ownership is bearish, with reduction in share ownership coming from institutional investors.

iSpecimen: Life sciences company iSpecimen ISPC comes in second place on the short squeeze leaderboard for the second straight week. Around 20% of the company’s float is short, with short interest up 4,400% in the most recent report. The cost to borrow on ISPC shares rose slightly from 175% last week to 178% this week. Institutional ownership is mixed, with more owners acquiring shares but total shares owned by institutions declining in the recent quarter.

Related Link: 5 Short Squeeze Candidates To Watch: Petros Pharma Tops List With 254% Cost To Borrow, One Of Highest On Recrod 

Reliance Global Group: Insurance and real estate holding company Reliance Global Group RELI joins the leaderboard at third place and barely meets the $30-million market cap requirement to be mentioned in the Fintel weekly report, at $32 million. Short interest in RELI shares is up 147% in the most recent report. Fintel reports 34% of the float for RELI is short. The company has a cost to borrow of 89%, which is normally among the week’s highest, but doesn’t stand out compared to some of the other names on the leaderboard.

Vallon Pharmaceutical: Biopharmaceutical company Vallon Pharmaceuticals VLON remains fourth on the Fintel short squeeze leaderboard. The company has 22% of its total float short, in line with last week’s figure. Fintel shows a cost to borrow of 60%, down slightly from last week’s 62.1%. Institutional ownership continues to decline in the biopharmaceutical name.

Longeveron: Biotechnology company Longeveron LGVN remains in the top five positions but falls from third place to fifth in this week’s list. The company has 30% of its total float short, in line with last week’s 30.5% figure. A cost to borrow of 153% for the week rises slightly from the previous week’s 152% figure. Institutional ownership is declining in Longeveron, which could be why the name is moving down the list for the week.