The Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA) share price has dumped 33.78% of its value after reaching a high of 37 cents per share on 13 September.
Shares of the lithium producer closed Wednesday's trade at 24.5 cents.
The S&P/ASX 200 Materials Index (ASX: XMJ) was easily the best-performing sector indices today, finishing up 2.47%.
Let's cover some recent developments in Sayona's fundamentals to see if we can piece together why its shares have been sold off.
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What's going on with Sayona shares?
Most recently, Sayona made the list as one of the top 10 most-shorted ASX shares with a short interest ratio of 8.9% when the article was published.
Some good news for the company came on 27 October, which is when the company released an update for its North American Lithium (NAL) operation in Quebec, Canada.
The update contained news that production at NAL will restart for the first quarter of 2023.
And then on 16 October, the Fool covered previous developments for Sayona. These included its pre-feasibility study for its Moblan Lithium Project, which is also located in Quebec.
Also, predicted price increases for lithium hydroxide and spodumene concentrate were anticipated to take hold in 2023 before levelling off and pulling back in 2024.
So, by most accounts, there has been nothing but good news to report on for Sayona. So why are its shares down by 33% in two months?
This question has been asked before. The most plausible explanation seems to be that investors have been selling shares to take profits from their investments. My colleague James noted this profit-taking at the start of October.
Sayona Mining share price snapshot
The Sayona Mining share price is up 88% year to date. That's beating the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) by a wide margin, down 6% over the same period.
The company's market capitalisation is around $2.03 billion.
