Avalon Holdings stock jumps in fifth day of unusual trading

Avalon Holdings

30/07/2018 16:57

** Unusual trading in AMEX-listed Avalon Holdings  AWX.A  shares
persists for a fifth straight session on Monday, with the waste
management and golf course operator's stock up 15.6 pct on
Monday, after rising 365.9 pct in previous four sessions. 
    ** AWX, which also saw a sharp increase in shorting in the
last few days, last traded at $11.85 after rising as high as
$20.20 earlier in the session. Stock had closed at $2.20 on July
23 before trading uptick began July 24.
    ** "People are shorting into this rally betting it's going
to reverse very quickly. I don't see any notable reason why this
stock would move so much," said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing
director at financial analytics firm S3 Partners. 
    ** "There's not much stock availability. Most of the stock
borrow availability has been taken down. It would be very
difficult to short more." 
    ** AWX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
    ** Trading volume 0.8 times 10-day moving avg with 2.44 mln
shares changing hands a little over 1.5 hours into session and
had several trading halts. Before the activity spike began on
July 24, the company's stock had traded just over 3k shares a
day on average dating back to 1998, according to Reuters data
    ** Shareholder MintBroker International Ltd, based in the
Bahamas, on Friday filed Form 3 with Securities and Exchange
Commission disclosing ownership of 1.9 million shares in Avalon
or roughly half its 3.8 mln shares outstanding according to the
latest data from Thomson Reuters. 
    ** AWX free float is just 1.84 mln shares according to
Thomson Reuters data.
    ** AWX has a StarMine short squeeze score of 100, indicating
the highest possible likelihood of a short squeeze. 
    ** Almost a million shares of AWX were sold short in just
the last three days. As of Monday, 970,000 shares were sold
short compared with 7,800 on July 20, according to S3 
      
      
     



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