Symbotic – The Plot Thickens
Beyond a salacious short-seller's report is simple earnings quality
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Symbotic, which makes warehouse automation systems, has lost more than half its value since I wrote my “hiding in the open” report on the company last May.
As it turns out, there’s more… much, much more.
Symbotic’s SYM 0.00%↑ stock took a greater hit today after an 80-page investigative report written by an anonymous shortseller started making the rounds. Headlined, “SYM’thing isn’t Right,” it made what I wrote look like a Cliff’s Notes version of a Cliff’s Notes version.
But a big part of the broader decline, since my report, occurred after the company’s latest earnings report at the tail-end of July.
As I do from time to time, I asked my friends Bill Whiteside and Jeff Middleswart of A Peek Behind the Numbers to take a peek at the company’s earnings quality.
‘Shocked’ by Low Short Interest
That’s their speciality, and after they did, they came back with the kind of response I hadn’t expected...
We are shocked that short interest is only 12%.
The comment had nothing to do with anything the short-seller found – they actually did their work earlier this week – but everything with the company’s earnings quality.
Top of their list was the amount the company is spending on R&D. As Bill and Jeff told me…