$HLBZ Naked Shorting War Intensifying

As a global leader in micro-mobility services, Helbiz, Inc. (NASDAQ: HLBZ) offers an impressive fleet of vehicles including e-scooters, e-bicycles, and e-mopeds. Although the company has substantial growth potential in its niche, HLBZ stock is trending lately thanks to the company’s stance on naked short selling. Considering that companies combating this market manipulation tactic have been gaining momentum lately, HLBZ stock by as much as 356% after announcing its measures to combat illegal naked short selling.

HLBZ Fundamentals

Looking to offer sustainable, cheap, and reliable micro-mobility solutions, HLBZ offers its fleet of electric vehicles which can be rented for a limited amount of time. Through this business model, HLBZ has the potential to capitalize on the growing demand for micro-mobility solutions in Europe and the US. With this in mind, the majority of HLBZ’s operations are in Italy. Meanwhile, the company has been growing its presence in the US to capitalize on its larger market in its pursuit of profitability.

At the core of its growth efforts in the US, HLBZ acquired Wheels Labs, Inc. to help accelerate its growth in this lucrative market. By acquiring Wheels, HLBZ is now able to expand its presence into new US markets – including the Los Angeles market where Wheels is the only operator to serve every neighborhood. With that in mind, HLBZ is well-positioned to capitalize on Wheels’ wide user base of more than 5 million users – which could help the company achieve substantial financial growth in the future.

Meanwhile, this acquisition provides HLBZ with access to Wheels’ proprietary technology and IP including the first shareable helmet system. At the same time, HLBZ could benefit from Wheels’ contracts serving B2B partners and universities. In light of this acquisition’s potential benefits for the company, HLBZ anticipates posting a positive gross profit margin this year and achieving operating income by 2024. Based on this, HLBZ stock could be a bargain considering its considerably cheap PPS.

As the company is looking to achieve these milestones, Wheels launched pre-orders for its Wheels One vehicle – marking the first time any of its vehicles have been available for sale. Featuring advanced technology and capabilities, Wheels One has been witnessing strong demand thanks to its innovative technology. With this in mind, Wheels One’s pre-order was a major success as the company received more than 1300 pre-orders – amounting to more than $2.2 million in sales. Considering that success, HLBZ intends to re-open pre-orders by the end of next week. As a result, HLBZ stock could be poised to run once pre-orders are re-opened thanks to the potential sales the company could further add. With initial deliveries scheduled by the end of Q2, HLBZ stock is shaping up to be one to hold onto this year.

Although the company’s business could be attractive to investors, HLBZ is gaining more interest from retail investors thanks to the growing trend of companies combatting illegal naked short selling. After Genius Group Limited (NYSE American: GNS) announced its investigation into illegal naked short selling activity, HLBZ has been one of the first companies to take a similar stance since this illegal tactic may be the reason for the stock’s beaten-down PPS. For this reason, HLBZ engaged ShareIntel – Shareholder Intelligence Services, LLC to help the company investigate the naked short selling activity witnessed by its stock.

To facilitate this investigation, HLBZ is utilizing ShareIntel’s patented process to analyze repository data from reporting entities, broker-dealers, and shareholders. In this way, ShareIntel can track shareholder ownership, identify unusual trading activities, and deploy corrective action steps to combat such activity. Based on this, HLBZ could find reporting anomalies among market makers, banks, broker-dealers, and clearing firms – allowing the company to prevent such activity from occurring. In light of the company’s interest to protect its shareholders’ value, HLBZ stock could be poised to run over the coming weeks in anticipation of its investigation’s results.

HLBZ Financials

In Q3, HLBZ reported a steep decline in assets to $26.5 million compared to $53.6 million at the beginning of the year. This decline is mainly the result of the company’s cash balance decreasing from $21.1 million to only $3.3 million. Moreover, Liabilities increased from $61.4 million to $68.1 million. As for revenues, the company reported $3.6 million compared to $4.7 million a year ago. At the same time, HLBZ continued to post a negative gross profit since the company remains in its early growth stages. Meanwhile, operating costs increased from $24.3 million in the same year-ago period to $26.5 million. Despite this, HLBZ reported a narrower net loss of $24.5 million compared to $28.3 million a year ago. While these numbers are underwhelming, HLBZ could report significant improvement in Q4 thanks to its acquisition of Wheels.

Technical Analysis

HLBZ stock price is currently at $.2872 and the stock shows supports near .2352, .1687, and .1107. Meanwhile, HLBZ has resistances near .3297 and .5490. After climbing 356% thanks to its stance in combatting naked short selling, HLBZ stock cooled off significantly and appears to be retesting its 50 MA support. Based on this, bullish investors could watch for this support to hold before entering into their positions. However, if HLBZ breaks through its 50 MA support, the stock could drop significantly to fill the gap near $.12.

Following HLBZ’s impressive run, accumulation is trending downwards and the MACD is bearish – both could be attributed to investors taking profits. Meanwhile, the RSI is holding at 44 which leaves enough room for HLBZ to run if its momentum continues to grow. In light of these indicators, HLBZ appears to be well-positioned to soar in the near term – especially with the company re-opening pre-orders for Wheels One next week.

HLBZ Forecast

Given the growing interest in stocks combatting naked short selling, HLBZ stock appears to be at the forefront to benefit from this momentum. While the stock cooled down from its impressive 356% run, HLBZ has the potential to replicate this run in the near future if its investigation shows evidence of naked short selling activity.

As for the long-term, HLBZ could be an intriguing investment thanks to its reputation as a global leader in its niche. Considering its acquisition of Wheels, HLBZ could be on the right track to grow revenues and achieve profitability thanks to Wheels’ wide user base of more than 5 million and its advanced technologies. Since Wheels One’s pre-order was a major success, HLBZ could be on track to post a gross profit this year as planned. With pre-orders for the Wheels One set to be re-opened next week, HLBZ stock could be one to buy in anticipation of its catalysts to play out.
Fundamental AnalysisTechnical Indicators

Also on:

Disclaimer