5 Short Squeeze Candidates To Watch: Progenity, Digital Brands Top List Again, SPAC AGC Joins Ahead Of Merger

Potential short squeeze plays have gained steam in 2021 with new retail traders looking for the next GameStop Corp GME or AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC.

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.

Fintel Data: Data from Fintel, which requires a subscription, provides a look at some of the top shorted stocks and data that shows how likely a short squeeze is to happen.

Here is a look at Fintel’s top five short squeeze candidates for the week of Oct. 25.

Progenity: Biotech Progenity Inc PROG tops the short squeeze leaderboard for the second straight week. Fintel reports that 22.4% of the company’s float is short, in line with last week’s total. The company has a cost to borrow of 76.9%, up from last week’s 74.6%.

Shares rallied on news of a patent for a preeclampsia test being awarded. Fintel points to the company issuing new shares being a potential roadblock but for those shorting the stock, “it could end in tears for those betting big against it today.”

Digital Brands: Direct-to-consumer brand company Digital Brands Group DBGI comes in second on Fintel’s list for the second straight week. Fintel reports 18.8% of the company’s share float shorted, in line with the previous week. Shares have a cost to borrow of 34.7%. Raw short interest in the company is up over 970% in recent weeks.

Related Link: 5 Short Squeeze Candidates To Watch: Progenity, Vinco Ventures And More 

Protagonist Therapeutics: Biotechnology Protagonist Therapeutics PTGX ranks third on the list for this week. Fintel reports 12.4% of the company’s float short and a borrow fee of 16.9%. The figures rank on the lower end of the list, but Fintel reports that short interest is up 28% in the last reporting period.

Altimeter Growth Corp: SPAC Altimeter Growth Corp AGC, which is bringing SE Asian company Grab public, ranks fourth on Fintel’s list. Grab is a leader in many segments in SE Asia including ride-hail, digital payments and food delivery.

Fintel shows 35.3% of the company’s float short, the highest of this week’s top five short-squeeze candidates. The borrow rate on AGC shares is 13.1%. Fintel shows strong institutional ownership with shares owned up 254% in the recent quarter and the number of funds owning AGC shares up 22%.

Paltalk: Communications company Paltalk PALT ranks fifth for the second straight week on Fintel’s short squeeze candidate list. Fintel shows 5.6% of shares floated, which is on the lower end. Paltalk has the highest borrow fee on the list at 131%. Fintel points to a float of 7.2 million non-shorted shares and points out that it would take only $50 million to snap up the remaining shares.