I’m Eyeing 4 Stocks Today, Including One Hit By a Short Report

Morpheus Research, which holds short positions in Velo3D (VELO), on Thursday asserted in its newly published short report: “Our investigation, involving 16 interviews with industry experts, former Velo3D employees and customers, reveals that Velo’s turnaround is an illusion fueled by a litany of overhyped deals, the aggressive promotion of a SpaceX relationship that largely ended years ago, and the dressing up of Velo’s unreliable technology as market leading. At the top of all this is a ‘fake it till you make it’ CEO who appears to have cooked up virtually every aspect of his past.”

Shares of Velo3D were down 9% to $16.39 near midday.

As far as I can tell, even a day later, Velo3D has not issued any official corporate response to these allegations made by short-seller Morpheus Research. The stock has taken a fairly severe hit over the past four days, and I would like to add aggressively here. Hence, even as I add to other portfolio long positions that have been hit hard this week, I am slow to add here as I would have liked to see some kind of reaction from the company. I will, however, still add something and assume that if there was something to these allegations by Morpheus Research would have been noticed by at least someone else. Morpheus has been criticized for a number of issues in the past that do give cause for concern. Basically, I have to admit that I don’t know.

Rocket Booster

Rocket Lab (RKLB) announced late yesterday that it had been selected by NASA to provide three Electron rocket launches for two separate NASA missions early next year. Rocket Lab will fly two back-to-back Electron launches for NASA’s PolSIR mission from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand not before June 2027. A separate Electron launch for NASA’s TSIS-2 mission will take place from the same launch site ahead of that mission.

Now, That We Have Some Cash…

We’re going shopping again in discounted names already on our book. We are cutting our target prices for Alto Ingredients (ALTO) to $8 from $9 and for Planet Labs (PL) to $46 from $55. For Velo3D (VELO), we are canceling our target price altogether until we understand which way the wind blows.

Thursday’s Intentions vs. Thursday’s Actual Trades

• Sell three shares of AMZN (AMZN) at or close to the last sale of $228.75.
• Sold three shares of AMZN at $230.42.
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• Sell six shares of PLTR (PLTR) at or close to the last sale of $108.03.
• Sold three shares of PLTR at $106.94.
• Sold three shares of PLTR at $108.45.

Friday’s Intentions

• Purchase 10 shares of EVLV (EVLV) at or close to the last sale of $5.15.
• Purchase 25 shares of ONDS (ONDS) at or close to the last sale of $7.55.
• Purchase 10 shares of PL at or close to the last sale of $26.01.
• Purchase 10 shares of VELO at or close to the last sale of $17.15.

Current Positions

Long 150 shares of ALTO at $5.51. Target Price: $8. Last sale: $4.96.

Long 60 shares of EVLV at $5.9895. Target Price: $8.50. Last sale: $5.15.

Long 200 shares of OCUL at $8.271. Target Price: $11. Last sale: $9.71.
Short one OCUL $11 Sep 18th call at $1.65, Last sale: $1.65.
Short one OCUL $9 July 17th call at $0.90. Last sale: $1.16.

Long 175 shares of ONDS at $9.4749. Target Price: $14. Last sale: $7.55.

Long 30 shares of PL at $30.6067. Target Price $46. Last sale: $26.01.

Long 5 shares of RKLB at $89.162. Target Price: $185. Last sale: $81.18.

Long 35 shares of RXT at $6.4529. Target Price: $9. Last sale: $6.17.

Long 175 shares of SIDU at $3.0342. Target Price: $6. Last sale: $2.45.

Long 135 shares of SOFI at $15.8617. Target Price: $24. Last sale: $17.11.
Short one SOFI August 21st $20 call at $1.02. Last sale: $1.02.

Long 20 shares of SWBI at $16.125. Target Price: $19. Last sale: $15.90.

Long 35 shares of VELO at $12.3231. No Target Price Right Now. Last sale: $17.15.

Cash: $1,545.45.

Portfolio Value: $10,539.54, +5.4% from inception on March 24.

Positions: Long ALTO, EVLV, OCUL, ONDS, PL, RKBL, RXT, SIDU, SOFI, SWBI, VELO; Short SOFI, OCUL.