Beyond Meat shorts building as investors digest demand woes; Short position in Lordstown reduced as stock falls on Endurance delay Welcome to this week’s installment of “The Short Interest Report" - The Fly's weekly recap of short interest trends among some of the most widely followed high-short-float stocks. Using the data from our partner Ortex.com, which utilizes the latest information from stock lenders to estimate short interest changes for thousands of publicly traded companies, this version will screen for some of biggest changes in short interest as a percentage of free float and days-to-cover ratios. This report will also continue to layer the short interest data on some of the more volatile and heavier-traded names of the week. Based on the availability of data from Ortex, the report will continue to track the trading period that covers prior Friday through Thursday of this week.
As a basis of comparison, the S&P 500 index was up 1.2%, the Russell 2000 index was down 1.9%, the Russell 1000 Growth ETF (IWF) was up 2.7%, and the Russell 1000 Value ETF (IWD) was down 0.7% in the period range.
SHORT INTEREST GAINERS
- Estimated short interest in Beyond Meat (BYND) tracked higher again after the post-earnings dip, rising about four percentage points to 32.3% - a two-week high. Recall the stock was down over 15% after a wider than expected loss, and the news flow on the name for much of this week has been around analysts cutting their price targets to reflect the quarter’s weak demand and uncertain outlook. Concurrently in the five-day period covered, shares of Beyond Meat were down another 4.3% to close Thursday at the lowest level of the year.
- Shares of Extreme Networks (EXTR) have had a “November to remember," rising over 33% month-to-date and over 15% in the five-day period through Thursday. The company’s Q1 earnings beat and partnership with Nascar announced early in the month appear to be well received by investors, but the short activity has also picked up significantly. Estimated short interest in Extreme Networks was up 30 percentage points this week to 42% and 40 points month-to-date, reaching its highest level in six months.
- Shares of Kezar Life Sciences (KZR) jumped over 60% early in the week after the company announced that the Phase 2 portion of its MISSION clinical trial evaluating KZR-616 in patients with active, proliferative lupus nephritis met with an “active” response. The stock is up 71% in the five-day period covered through Thursday, though the estimated short interest as a percentage of free float is also up over 38 points to 45.4%.
- Estimated short interest in Sun Communities (SUI) was up nearly 24 percentage points at 61.3% and the day-to-cover ratio on the stock increased by over 50% to 10.1 while the stock rose just 1.5% in the five-day period covered. The market had a positive reaction to the company’s announcement that it is acquiring Park Holidays UK for $1.3B.
- Estimated short interest and days to cover ratio in Danaos (DAC) doubled to 30.8% and 6.5-times – the highest level in two months and for 2021 respectively. The stock had a muted reaction to its earnings early last week, however, and was down just 1.3% in the five-day period covered on little news flow and muted trading volume.
SHORT INTEREST DECLINERS
- Estimated short interest in Ocugen (OCGN) is down just over three percentage points to 24.7% and days-to-cover ratio is down 12% at 2.2, though the stock has also traded down to its lowest level of the month, losing 16.5% in the five-day period covered. The stock was among the most cited names on StockTwits this week, even though its phase 3 trial data released late last week suggested that its COVID drug Covaxin is only about 65% effective in the Delta variant. At its low this week, the short interest of 24.3% was the lowest level in three months.
- Shares of Lordstown (RIDE) had spiked going into last Thursday’s earnings, but subsequently fell over 26% in the five-day period covered as the company was forced to push back the expected delivery of Endurance pickup truck to Q3 of next year due to supply chain issues. Estimated short interest in the name had also ticked up early in the week, but as the stock price slid, the short positioning also retreated, falling overall by three percentage points to 20.9% - a three-week low.
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BYND EXTR KZR SUI DAC OCGN RIDE Keywords: Short selling, short interest, days to cover, securities, lending, utilization, GameStop, AMC, Beyond Meat, ordstown Motors, sentiment analysis