POET Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: POET) saw short interest rise during the latest reporting period, partially recovering from a sharp late-August decline even as aggregate short positioning across Nasdaq securities declined.
POET had 22,826,238 shares sold short as of the Sept. 15 settlement date, up 586,752 shares, or 2.64%, from 22,239,486 shares on Aug. 31, according to short-interest data released Sept. 24. The latest position had a short-interest ratio of about 2.7 days to cover, according to MarketBeat.
The increase ran counter to the broader Nasdaq trend. Short interest across all 5,516 Nasdaq securities declined to 22,521,310,694 shares on Sept. 15 from 22,585,920,419 shares at the previous settlement date, down about 64.61 million shares.
POET Short Position Rebuilds After 18.5% Drop
Shares sold short had fallen to 22,239,486 on Aug. 31 from 27,273,807 on Aug. 14, a decline of roughly 5.03 million shares, or 18.5%. The Sept. 15 report therefore marks a change in direction from that late-August contraction, although the outstanding short position remains below its mid-August level.
Short-interest figures measure open reported short positions at a settlement date. They do not by themselves establish a subsequent direction for the share price or indicate that a short squeeze will occur.
POET Trading Volume Declines Through Friday
Separately, POET shares finished Friday, Sept. 25, at $7.77, up 0.26%, with approximately 4.10 million shares changing hands, according to Nasdaq historical data. That was the lowest daily trading volume shown since Aug. 25, when approximately 4.93 million shares traded.
Turnover declined steadily during the final five sessions of the week, from about 12.84 million shares on Monday to 10.10 million on Tuesday, 7.97 million on Wednesday, 6.78 million on Thursday, and 4.10 million on Friday.
