--- title: "Shorts fled Magnachip at $2.40. Its CEO paid $3.18 six weeks ago." description: "The smallest stock on the power-chip beat opens near its 52-week low two days before the two earnings prints that will test the $3.42 price Navitas paid for new Magnachip shares in September." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Chips" published: 2026-11-02T14:20:20.405Z modified: 2026-11-02T14:20:20.405Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/shorts-fled-magnachip-at-2-40-its-ceo-paid-3-18-six-weeks-ago language: en keywords: "Magnachip, Navitas Semiconductor, Power Semiconductors, Short Interest, Insider Buying, Earnings" --- # Shorts fled Magnachip at $2.40. Its CEO paid $3.18 six weeks ago. > The smallest stock on the power-chip beat opens near its 52-week low two days before the two earnings prints that will test the $3.42 price Navitas paid for new Magnachip shares in September. Magnachip Semiconductor, a $91.3 million designer of analog and power chips traded on the New York Stock Exchange, opened Monday at $2.40, within 22 cents of its 52-week low of $2.18 and well under its 50-day average of $3.02 [1]. Six weeks ago the same stock jumped 14% in a day [2]. The difference is not the tape. It is who is still in it. The crowd paid to bet against the company has cashed out. Short interest [fell 34.7% to 1,092,672 shares as of October 15](https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/options-magnachip-semiconductor-corp-nyse-mx-stock-short-interest-report-for-october-2026-11-02/), from 1,672,866 at September 30, leaving 3.2% of shares outstanding sold short and 1.2 days of average volume to buy them back [1]. Institutions, who own 74.26% of the register, were adding in the second quarter: new stakes from Winton Group, Squarepoint Ops, TD Waterhouse and Susquehanna Fundamental, and an 88.7% raise from Algert Global [1]. Yet the two analysts covering the stock carry a consensus of Reduce, and Weiss Ratings reissued its sell (D-) rating [1]. The professional pessimism has abandoned it and the professional optimism rates it a sell, which leaves a stock anchored to nothing but its own next numbers. ## Navitas paid $3.42 in September, the chief executive paid $3.18, the market pays $2.40 On September 21 Magnachip announced that Navitas, the power-semiconductor company selling gallium nitride and silicon carbide devices into AI data centers, had [agreed to buy 1,461,988 newly issued Magnachip shares at $3.42 each, $5 million in all](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260921532903/en/Magnachip-Announces-Strategic-Investment-by-Navitas-Semiconductor), under a privately negotiated purchase agreement set to close on or about September 24 [3]. Chief executive [Chae Lee](https://theinference.org/markets/people/chae-lee) bought 80,000 shares at an average $3.18 on September 23, the week the deal was set to close, for $254,400, lifting his stake 27.71% to 368,750 shares [1]. At Monday's open, the negotiated price sat more than 40% above the market, and the chief executive's purchase was about 25% underwater [1]. *Chart: **The market opened at $2.40 where Navitas paid $3.42 six weeks ago** Bar chart of six Magnachip share prices in US dollars: the 52-week high of $9.86, Navitas' September purchase price of $3.42, chief executive Chae Lee's $3.18 average purchase price, the $3.02 50-day moving average, Monday's $2.40 opening price and the $2.18 52-week low.* *US dollars per Magnachip (NYSE: MX) share. The Navitas price is the negotiated price for 1,461,988 newly issued shares agreed on September 21, 2026; the CEO price is Chae Lee's average purchase on September 23, 2026; the open, averages and 52-week range are as of November 2, 2026. Sources: MarketBeat short interest report, Business Wire press release. [1][3]* The partnership behind that price is a licensing deal: Magnachip is porting Navitas' GeneSiC silicon carbide technology, covering 1,200-volt to 3,300-volt and higher applications, into its fabrication facility in South Korea [3]. The test of it arrives in two days. Magnachip reports third-quarter results on November 4 after the close, with [consensus at $47.50 million of revenue and a $0.20 loss per share](https://squawknews.com/news/627240-magnachip-q3-26-earnings-estimates-ahead-of-november-4-release) [4]. [Navitas reports the night before, November 3](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/navitas-semiconductor-to-report-q3-2026-financial-results-on-tuesday-november-3-2026-1036622604) [5]. ## The $3.42 was never a bid for the whole company The strongest counterpoint is the fine print. The $3.42 was the price on one negotiated block of new shares sold to a partner, not an offer for every share [2][4]. [The companies have disclosed no revenue targets or production timelines for the partnership](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/magnachip-shares-rise-14-securing-124011700.html) [2], and the standalone business is guided to a quarterly loss [4]. A discount to a strategic price is not automatically a mispricing. But the sequence still reads backwards. The shorts are gone, the institutions were buying, and the man with the best information in the building paid $3.18 for a share the market now opens at $2.40. On November 3 and 4, two prints in two days will say whether the silicon carbide partnership is turning into orders or whether $3.42 was the high-water mark. Two days of reporting will settle more than six weeks of silence did. ## Takeaway The shorts are out, institutions were buying and the CEO paid $3.18 six weeks ago, yet Magnachip opens at $2.40; two earnings prints on November 3 and 4 will test the $3.42 Navitas paid for new shares. ## Sources 1. [MarketBeat, Magnachip Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:MX) Stock Short Interest Report for October, 2 November 2026](https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/options-magnachip-semiconductor-corp-nyse-mx-stock-short-interest-report-for-october-2026-11-02/) 2. [Yahoo Finance, Magnachip Shares Rise 14% After Securing $5 Million Investment From Navitas, 21 September 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/magnachip-shares-rise-14-securing-124011700.html) 3. [Business Wire, Magnachip Announces Strategic Investment by Navitas Semiconductor, 21 September 2026](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260921532903/en/Magnachip-Announces-Strategic-Investment-by-Navitas-Semiconductor) 4. [SquawkNews, Magnachip Q3'26 Earnings Estimates Ahead of November 4 Release, 28 October 2026](https://squawknews.com/news/627240-magnachip-q3-26-earnings-estimates-ahead-of-november-4-release) 5. [Markets Insider (GlobeNewswire), Navitas Semiconductor to Report Q3 2026 Financial Results on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, 13 October 2026](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/navitas-semiconductor-to-report-q3-2026-financial-results-on-tuesday-november-3-2026-1036622604) --- Shorts fled Magnachip at $2.40. Its CEO paid $3.18 six weeks ago. — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/shorts-fled-magnachip-at-2-40-its-ceo-paid-3-18-six-weeks-ago