Axon's Big Move May Be Driven By Naked Short Covering

Last week, Taser International Inc — previously traded TASR, now AAXN — fell after the company announced its offering a free one-year trial of its body cameras to every police officer in the United States. However, in the days since the announcement, the stock has rebounded significantly.

One possible explanation for the 5 percent reversal in Taser’s share price is that Taser short sellers are taking the opportunity to cover their positions in the stock. According to shortsqueeze.com, Taser has an elevated short percent of float of 24.5 percent. Taser currently has more than 12.5 million shares held short with 7.1 days to cover.

Nakedshortreport.com claims much of the recent spike in Taser short selling has come from naked shorts. Regardless of the source of the selling, Taser short interest has skyrocketed in 2017.

What's In A Name?

Taser underwent a name and ticker change (AAXN) last week, and the free body camera promotion is part of a wide-scale rebranding effort. Some sites still refer to the company as Taser.

“We are changing our name from TASER to Axon to reflect the evolution of our company from a weapons manufacturing company to a full solutions provider of cloud and mobile software, connected devices, wearable cameras and now artificial intelligence,” the company said in a press release.

Following the recent move, shares are now up 497.5 percent in the past five years.

The stock traded recently at $23.44.

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