BlockBeats News, July 16th, as SpaceX's stock price fell to near the IPO price, short sellers are rapidly increasing their short positions. Data from S3 Partners shows that currently about 185 million shares of SpaceX stock are shorted, accounting for approximately 29% of the public float, with a corresponding short interest of about $25 billion.
Three weeks ago, the estimated short interest in SpaceX was only about 40 million shares, representing approximately 5% to 7% of the float. The stock has fallen by about 20% since July, and on Wednesday, it briefly dropped below the $135 IPO price.
KeyBanc Capital Markets stated that at the time of SpaceX's IPO, the public float accounted for only about 13 billion shares of the total shares outstanding. The initial large-scale restricted shares may be unlocked around the time of the second-quarter earnings report, with approximately 11% of the total shares becoming eligible for sale; about 70 days after the IPO, several batches, each representing about 4% of the total shares outstanding, will continue to be unlocked.
Musk's holdings of about 42% of SpaceX shares will remain locked until June 2027. The company's 13th "Starship" test flight is scheduled for Thursday, which may affect market sentiment towards the stock.
