The five most heavily shorted large-cap companies on Wall Street at the end of April 2023 include an online pet food retailer, a web-based broadcaster, a health tech provider for seniors, a cryptocurrency exchange, and an electric carmaker. And no, the latter is not Tesla.
Before identifying the most shorted companies by the market, it is important to keep in mind the definition of short selling and the criteria used to determine if a stock is highly shorted by the market.
What is short selling? Short selling is a process in which investors speculate that the price of a stock will fall. In practice, they borrow a number of shares, sell them at a high price, repurchase them at a reduced price, and then return the borrowed shares at a profit. This approach only yields a profit for the investor if the share price falls; otherwise, the investor would lose money by being forced to buy the shares at a higher price.
A company is said to be highly shorted when the short interest, or the quantity of shares borrowed by speculators, exceeds at least 20% of its outstanding shares or float.
Benzinga examined the most shorted large-cap (over $10 billion) stocks in the market using the Scanner tool on the Benzinga Pro platform.
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5 Most Heavily Shorted Large Caps In Wall Street
1) Chewy, Inc. CHWY
- Chewy.com is an e-commerce specializing in pet products, including food and treats, pet supplies and pet medication and services.
- The short interest is 22.6 million shares, while the share float is 63.88 million, resulting in a 35.41% short interest-to-float ratio, currently the highest among U.S. large-cap companies.
- Chewy shares are down 12% in 2023, and about 70% below their all-time highs set in February 2021.
2) Sirius XM Holdings Inc. SIRI
- Sirius XM Holdings is an audio entertainment corporation that offers subscription entertainment services for music, sports, entertainment, comedy, news, traffic and weather channels, as well as podcasts.
- The short interest is 163.9 million shares, while the share float is 643.8 million, resulting in a 24.8% short interest-to-float ratio, currently the second-biggest among U.S. large-cap companies.
- Sirium XM shares are down 35% in 2023.
3) Agilon Health, Inc. AGL
- Agilon Health offers healthcare services for seniors through primary care physicians. The company was formerly known as Agilon Health Topco, Inc.
- The short interest is 37.2 million shares, while the share float is 123.6 million, resulting in a 22.9% short interest-to-float ratio.
- Agilon shares are up 52% in 2023.
4) Coinbase Global COIN
- Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform by trading volume in the United States.
- The short interest is 36.9 million shares, while the share float is 164.65 million, resulting in a 22.4% short interest-to-float ratio.
- Coinbase shares are up 50.5% in 2023, but 85% lower since IPO.
5) Lucid Group, Inc. LCID
- Lucid Group is an electric car manufacturer headquartered in California.
- The short interest is 139.98 million shares, while the share float is 707.63 million, resulting in a 19.8% short interest-to-float ratio.
- Lucid Group shares are flat year to date, but 87% lower compared to their all-time high set in November 2021.
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