Castor Maritime Stock $CTRM for February

At the Last Futurist we think Castor Maritimes has become a stonk (GameStop stock) as in January it was one of the most shorted stocks. With Robincrook limiting buys in $CTRM it’s also taken a more speculative tone to its trading volume.

It’s already well up for the year, yet has some upside still given the trading climate of the Wallstreetbets crowd. It’s a business that just bought its 7th ship but has a long history being shorted and diluting its stock.

It’s a small Cyprus-based dry bulk shipping company and in my mind seems like an underdog stock. It was $0.16 on December 16th and today is trading around the $0.60 mark. In ordinary times it would be a very bad deal, but these are not ordinary times with the Gamestop movement of speculative anti-short trading.

With Robinhood targeting the stock it also becomes perhaps more popular on other brokers. With Robinhood severely restricting buying stonks, crypto and even fractional stocks, it’s a very weird climate. With so much liquidity in the market, anti-shorting momentum is considerable and $CTRM has an off-chance of profiting from the Reddit activism and Robinhood mis-handling of the situation.

$CTRM now has over 50,000 watchers on Stocktwits. My favorite source for the most shorted stocks currently has to be finandchill.

Robinhood clearly has a conflict of interest when some of its major customers are Hedge Funds like Citadel. As GameStop and other stocks targeted by day traders in the r/WallStreetBets subreddit begin to climb, popular fee-free trading platform Robinhood is outright preventing users from buying /heavily restricting, and even only allowing sales to close out positions and this is now including penny stock $CTRM.

While $KOSS has been the biggest winner outside of $GME, the more obscure brands tend to do better, even if $AMC have some real fundamentals by getting more funding for 2021. All of these heavily shorted stocks are underdogs by nature, and by pressure from the pandemic in the digital transformation acceleration. But is shipping really so beaten down? The shipping stocks have been, but that’s not likely forever.

$CTRM has been so maligned for so long it’s upside doesn’t even feel real. Shareholders will doubtless be very grateful to see the share price up 406% in the last quarter, but can it last? The chart is not very encouraging. However it was 26 days ago they did a $26 million price offering, so all that they can get as a activist stonk is a bonus to their dry shipping business.

In the macro picture, Castor Maritime fell to a loss making position during the year. Some investors no doubt dumped the stock as a result and it’s been one of the most down-trodden stocks of the pandemic, that is, until now. So it’s no surprise to see the shorts jump on it in January, 2021. It’s price has returned to Summer levels but is still a far cry from its price before the pandemic began.

Reddit is not a decentralized paradise of activism, it’s VERY easy to manipulate. At the Last Futurist we have serious doubts the little guy vs. institutional shorts is even a real event since institutions which own 80% of all assets are likely gaming both sides. But it’s fun to pretend that we are part of a movement! It’s speculative entertainment and while shorts make up just 2% of traders, it’s fun to have an imaginary enemy.

Given the surge in popularity of the Gamestop movement, looking for penny stocks that are now being heavily shorted like $CTRM makes sense, since the upside should they take off is so considerable. This is why we think $CTRM is a buy under $0.65. Not a strong buy, but a highly speculative at your own risk buy. Finally, we must thank the Fed for creating such an entertaining stock market this year with so much liquidity, low interest rates and an immortal bullish market bubble.

• The short volume ratio of CTRM is 23%.
• Given that Robinhood is playing a central role in retail investors pumping dark horse stocks and given that $CTRM is now a stonk, it’s a rare stock under $1.00 that fits the category.
• Average daily volume of $CTRM heading into February is still 2x normal levels.
• The anti-short position of the Wallstreetbets will now take on an anti-restriction movement and CTRM is likely a huge winner in that game.
• Castor Maritime saw a increase in short interest in the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totaling 25,790,000 shares, an increase of 5,150.4% from the previous total of 491,200 shares.
• In terms of fundamentals, revenue has been increasing each year and the company is acquiring more ships.
• With a 52-week range of $0.11 to $2.60, it’s volatility is very appealing to invest in. One year ago the stock was $1.38, more than twice the current price.

Finally just to remind you that this is a real business. Castor Maritime Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in ocean transportation of dry bulk cargoes worldwide. It provides seaborne transportation services for dry bulk cargo, including iron ore, coal, grains, steel products, fertilizers, cement, bauxite, sugar, and scrap metals.

$CTRM price stands at $0.6199 at the end of January, 2021, but can in our estimation move much higher in February. Check out their website. Even the most basic due diligence for penny stock requires this.