Gem has been a huge haven since late 2014 for short sellers,...

Gem has been a huge haven since late 2014 for short sellers, whose addiction was reinforced by the stock's price fall and leaders whose track record fed short seller sentiment. As such, I'm not convinced yet that the recent price move is a re-rating. Even if it's short covering, shorters tend to cling to a stock longer than they should (JBL in 2012 is a clasdic example). Hopefully, my cynicism is misplaced, but stable divs gives one patience.

But some signs that gem may (eventually) have upward momentum:
1. Affinity *may* be out of the childcare centre bidding wars for a while. See my earlier post.
2. The chair has left, which removes a major sentiment cloud over the stock.
3. Several global brokers have commented that the asx smart money has moved down the capitalization list (i.e., advising to invest more in smaller cap firms).
4 . Six of the 10 brokers covering gem have an outright/strong buy (1 outperform, 1 hold, 2 sell). Broker ratings have moved up recently, i recall. Average target price has remained steady since august at $4.56.