RKDA shares have given back their huge gains from March
Agricultural biotech Arcadia Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:RKDA) is set to jump 27.7% this morning, thanks to news that rice grown with the company's proprietary traits showed promising results in a field trial from the past two crop seasons. Arcadia CEO Raj Ketkar added, "These results show that our agricultural productivity traits hold significant promise to help farmers globally." This is just the latest upbeat announcement from the company, after its wheat program met its main goals in a study in March. The company should remain in focus, too, with earnings due out after the close tomorrow.
RKDA stock has a history of making big moves on the charts. The shares actually opened for public trading back in May 2015 near $150, only to suffer a sharp two-year downtrend, eventually bottoming at $3.60 this past December. Buyers began to step in just before the aforementioned wheat news hit in March, and the announcement ultimately sparked a move up to $66.56. Since then, though, the security has continued to fall, closing yesterday at $9.30 -- just below the 200-day moving average, which is parked right at the $10 mark.
Despite the recent round of positive news and knack for volatility, Arcadia Biosciences has failed to capture Wall Street's attention. In fact, there's currently not a single analyst covering the stock. One group that has moved in, however, is short sellers, with the number of RKDA shares sold short increasing exponentially this year. By the numbers, fewer than 13,700 shares were held by short sellers at the end of 2017, and that figure now stands above 172,000.