Pioneer Drilling (PDC: sentiment, chart, options) said today that its third-quarter net income climbed to $19.1 million, or 38 cents per share, while revenue rose to $152.5 million. Ahead of the report, analysts were expecting a profit of 29 cents per share. Additionally, the company said that it has concluded an internal investigation into its control over financial reporting. According to Pioneer, no material weakness was discovered, and no restatement of financial information is required.

Following this double dose of news, the stock is about 6% higher this afternoon. PDC is up more than 24% year-to-date, and is now trading narrowly atop its 32-week moving average.

Some of today's gains could be attributable to a short-squeeze situation. Short interest on the stock rose by more than 10% during the most recent reporting period, and now accounts for 8.9% of the equity's available float. At PDC's average daily volume, it would take nearly 6 trading days for all these bearish bets to be repurchased.