It's worth casting an eye toward the short sellers periodically.
If you own a stock that they are heavily targeting, you might want to double-check your thesis. Or, if you do some short selling yourself, there could be an idea for a trade or two.
Short sellers borrow shares and sell them on the expectation they can be returned at a lower price. Their bearish bets do not always pan out, but academic studies have found that they tend to get it right.
During the second week of each month, the Globe and Mail publishes tables of Canadian companies that are attracting substantial short interest. Those for February are presented below.
Table I shows the 20 Canadian companies with the highest percentage of shares on loan as of Feb 13. The data was provided by data-analytics firm IHS Markit.
The majority of companies on the table have made appearances each month since the updates began in November. However, many have seen a reduction of one-quarter to one-half in the percentage of shares loaned out. Cases include: Quebecor Inc., Badger Daylighting Ltd., DHX Media Ltd., Klondex Mines Ltd. and Canadian Western Bank. A smaller number of companies are seeing their percentages creep upward, notably Boardwalk REIT and First Majestic Silver Corp.
A newcomer bursting onto the table is Birchcliff Energy Ltd. Its percentage of shares loaned out had the biggest jump over the previous month, soaring 51 per cent.
Birchcliff Energy is an Alberta energy company, with three-quarters of its production allocated to natural gas. The management and the balance sheet look strong. And the shares are cheap, trading considerably below their historical price-to-book value ratio. But delays in building pipeline capacity are restricting shipments of natural gas to markets outside of Alberta. As a result, there is a glut in the province that is bringing prices down to very low levels.
Table II shows the 20 Canadian companies with the highest cost to borrow shares, based on data from Interactive Brokers. When short sellers bid up borrowing costs for shares, it is usually a sign of increased bearishness.
Nearly half of the companies on table are from the marijuana sector. Bearish sentiment has thus returned to the high levels of two months ago, following a drop-off last month when many short sellers unwound their bets during a vigorous rally in marijuana stocks.
Another sign of heightened bearishness is the escalating cost to borrow units of the Horizons Marijuana Life Science ETF. It has climbed from 33.8 per cent in November to 53.1 per cent in February.
At 70.5 per cent, Acasti Pharma Inc. has the highest cost to borrow on the table. It markets a krill-oil extract for lowering triglycerides, which is a type of fat in the blood associated with heart disease. The company is also developing a prescription drug, CaPre, for the treatment of elevated triglyceride.
After trading above $40 on the Nasdaq in 2013, Acasti Pharma's shares are currently hovering just above $1, the minimum bid requirement for maintaining a listing on that exchange. The loss-making company completed the Phase 2 trial for CaPre over a year and a half ago. The Phase 3 trial has not yet started.
In November, Acasti Pharma shares more than doubled to $3 when the company announced it was negotiating with a Chinese pharmaceutical company to commercialize CaPre in Asia. The shares sold off afterward, accelerating when a public offering of stock and warrants was announced mid-December.
Table III shows the 20 companies with the largest percentage increases in the dollar value of short positions, based on data from S3 Partners LLC. While the dollar value of shares short is not all that informative on its own, changes over time can highlight shifts in bearish viewpoints. Companies with less than a $5-million increase in short position were screened out.
There was very little carry-over from last month's Table III. An exception was Canada Goose Holdings Inc. Short interest for the apparel company moved up from $11.5-million to $46.5-million, a cumulative increase of 300 per cent over the past two months.
Its fur-lined parkas selling for more than $1,000 are very popular, with line-ups at stores to buy them. Sales and earnings are growing in leaps and bounds, fuelling more than a doubling in share price since the initial public offering last March.
This has made valuation rich and the stock vulnerable to the slightest bad news – which occurred earlier this month when the third-quarter report was released without an upward revision in the company's guidance for 2018 sales. The share price plunged 20 per cent, in response. Since then, there has been a rebound that has recouped about half the reversal.