5 Short Squeeze Candidates To Watch: Vinco Ventures, Camber Energy, Katapult And More

Potential short squeeze plays have gained steam in 2021 with new retail traders looking for the next GameStop Corp GME and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC, two stocks that attracted strong interest and saw shares spike.

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 Sept. 27.

1. Aterian: Consumer products company Aterian Inc ATER tops the list this week after being the No. 2 candidate last week. Short interest remains at 37% of the float, according to Fintel. The borrow fee on shares is 88%, down from last week’s 100%. Shares of ATER hit $19.10 on Sept. 13 before falling back down to $11. ATER shares climbed on Friday back over the $13.50 mark. Shares of ATER traded at $3.04 back in August before starting to squeeze higher.

2. Marin Software: Cloud-based advertising company Marin Software MRIN places second on the list. Fintel reports short interest as a percentage of float at 9.2% and a borrow fee of 49%. These are among the lower rates in recent top five lists. Marin makes its way on the short squeeze leaderboard thanks to a float of just 13 million shares, “which is low enough for a meme-stock army or a hedge fund to crack,” Fintel says.

Related Link: Exclusive: Katapult CEO Talks Growing Ecommerce, Strength From Stimulus And Affirm Partnership 

3. Vinco Ventures: Last week’s leader Vinco Ventures BBIG comes in at third for the week. Short interest of float is 25% and the company has a borrow fee of 25%. BBIG shares hit a high of $12.49 on Sept. 8 before steadily declining to under $6.

4. Camber Energy: Oil and natural gas company Camber Energy CEI has seen shares rise with increased retail interest. The company comes in fourth on the Fintel short squeeze leaderboard with short interest of 23% of the float and a borrow fee of 13.7%. While the percentage doesn’t jump out, the increase in short interest from 6.1 million shares at the end of August to 24.4 million shares on Sept. 15 marked a jump of 298%. Short sellers appear to be circling this name after seeing shares rise from 33 cents a share to $2.29 in less than a month.

5. Katapult Holdings: No stranger to the short squeeze leaderboard is Katapult Holdings KPLT. The buy now, pay later company went public via SPAC in 2021 and has seen shares rise on interest in the sector and being a potential short squeeze candidate. The company has a short percentage of float of 17.7% and a borrow fee of 56.5%. Both these figures are up from last week and Fintel notes the borrow fee is among the highest the company has seen in weeks.