HTG Molecular Rally Runs Out Of Steam

HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc HTGM shares appear to have finally run out of steam on Monday after the stock went on an incredible run to close out last week. Following the close on March 22, HTG announced it had received CE marking in the European Union for its HTG EdgeSeq ALKPlus Assay EU.The assay is used to identify lung cancer patients eligible for treatment with ALK-targeted therapeutics.

CEO T.J. Johnson said in a press release that the company plans “to offer this assay to selected European early adopters as we seek additional regulatory approvals elsewhere.”

Following the news, shares surged roughly 350 percent in two days, but the stock is trading mostly flat on a down day in the market on Monday.

Context Of The Move

A large part of HTG’s huge move may have come from its combination of relatively high short interest and extremely low float. According to Yahoo, HTG’s float is only 2.7 million shares, while shortsqueeze.com lists its short percent of float at 24.8 percent. Yahoo has the stocks short percent of float listed at a much more reasonable 4.8 percent.

According to YCharts, short interest in the stock had skyrocketed so far in 2017, up 349.3 percent year-to-date. HTG is one of several low-float, heavily shorted stocks that have logged 100 percent-plus gains in a matter of days in recent months. The majority of the stocks gave up significant portions of those gains in the weeks that followed.

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