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As profiled here in mid-April, the workflow management company Asana (ASAN) has continued to find itself at the epicenter of “SaaS-pocalypse”, and while a better than feared Q1 earnings report and raised guidance on May 28th has emboldened traders looking for oversold value, the bears see the two-day 36% bounce as more of a “dead cat” variety. This week, Ortex-reported short interest on the stock hit fresh record high, rising from 32.6% to 35.8%, with the earnings event related spike in volume pressuring days-to-cover to stay unchanged at 5.0. The stock was up 21% in the five-day period covered through Thursday, but the retreat in overall Tech space on Friday saw Asana shares slip 3%. The stock is now down 43% year-to-date.
Ortex-reported short interest in Groupon (GRPN) had been sloping upward gradually since the start of the year and through April, rising from 37% to about 48%. A bout of volatility in mid-April and a post-earnings jump in the stock price on May 8th coincided with a meaningful pickup in short positioning. This week however, despite shares falling 13% in the five-day period covered through Thursday and another 11% on Friday, bears are still positioning for a deeper retracement. Short interest as a percentage of free float hit new record highs, rising from 54.9% to 66.8%. Similarly to Asana, in spite of record highs in short interest, the sustained increased in trading activity has pressured the days-to-cover component from 6.5 to 6.3 – a six-month low.
