AMPH & EZPW – Stocks of Interest

This is a post mainly looking for a second opinion. There are two stocks piquing my interest right now.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (AMPH)

EZCORP Inc (EZPW)

Both seem to be companies on the up, growing their earnings and revenues and confident in meeting their guidance for the year.

Both have grown sales and earnings year over year and quarter over quarter, they are cash generative and have strong balance sheets that more than meet their obligations.

Both have no recent history of significant shareholder dilution or recent stock splits.

EZPW has performed better YTD but AMPH has performed well over the quarter.

EZPW doesn’t raise any major alarms with insider selling, AMPH insider selling is abnormal and seems to point that there could be something fishy happening, both have only had insider selling this year and no buying.

Neither are currently buying back shares but EZPW has hinted at a potential buyback in the near future.

What’s interesting about these two is that they both currently have short interest of float above 10% with short ratios over 10.

There seems to be a significant negative sentiment for these two companies and I cannot figure out why. Their reports are strong and neither is facing any serious issues or litigation, in fact they both appear to be great value.

I smell a potential squeeze with both of these companies, the short interest seems unwarranted, the only potential red flag I can see are the insider sales at AMPH.

Now I’m still a student at all of this so I’m asking if someone smarter than me might be able to uncover why there is such a negative sentiment for these companies.

Is it something macroeconomic? By their recent earnings calls I can’t see any major headwinds highlighted for either business.

I am grateful if you’ve read this far.
These seem to me like potential value opportunities, I would love to see what people can uncover that I might have missed and where I can improve my analysis.