Latest news with #short interest
Globe and Mail
23-07-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Why Shares of Kohl's Are Sinking Today
Key Points Kohl's has become a meme stock. Investors recently noticed the stock had close to 50% short interest. The company has struggled as of late. 10 stocks we like better than Kohl's › After rocketing nearly 38% higher yesterday, shares of Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) traded close to 16% lower, as of 12:12 a.m. ET today. Shares bobbed and weaved in violent trading sessions sparked by interest from retail investors, who view Kohl's as a meme stock. Meme mania is back With the market at all-time highs, investors are back in on meme stocks and appear to have targeted several names with high short interest that seem ripe for a short squeeze. Other stocks that have become meme stocks include Opendoor, Krispy Kreme, and GoPro. Kohl's had one of the highest percentages of its public float shorted at close to 50%, making it the ideal candidate for meme investors to identify. Kohl's was the topic of several threads on the popular sub- Reddit WallStreetBets on Tuesday. Kohl's has struggled as competition from e-commerce and other discount retailers has cut into the company's business. Recently, analysts at Goldman Sachs raised their price target from $5 per share to $7 on "reacceleration in top-line growth and cleaner inventories." But the stock has soared past that level, due to the meme rally. Of the 12 Wall Street analysts that have issued research reports on the stock over the last three months, five had a hold rating on the company, while seven say sell, according to TipRanks. The average price target implies about 43% downside, as of this writing. Buckle up As mentioned, Kohl's no longer trades on any kind of fundamentals and now is being propelled by social media-driven exuberance. There's no predicting where the stock will go or in which direction, so investors should avoid the name. But if you do invest, only invest what you can afford to lose. Should you invest $1,000 in Kohl's right now? Before you buy stock in Kohl's, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Kohl's wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $641,800!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,023,813!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,034% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025 Bram Berkowitz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Goldman Sachs Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Reuters
23-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Highly shorted Krispy Kreme, GoPro surge in latest meme stock frenzy
July 23 (Reuters) - Krispy Kreme (DNUT.O), opens new tab and GoPro (GPRO.O), opens new tab were among the companies riding the latest meme stock rally on Wednesday, as retail traders latched on to the highly shorted names a day after piling into the shares of department store company Kohl's. Individual investors are betting on riskier pockets of the market, including cryptocurrencies, as U.S. stocks soar to record highs on signs of a resilient economy and easing trade tensions. Shares of doughnut chain Krispy Kreme, whose nearly 32% of free float have been shorted, jumped 25% to $5.17, adding to a nearly 27% surge on Tuesday. Action camera maker GoPro soared 62% to a three-month high of $2.20. Plant-based meat company Beyond Meat (BYND.O), opens new tab gained 10.4%. "The common denominator seems to be stocks with high short interest again, sub-dollar stocks and they get moving somehow," said Joe Saluzzi, partner and co-founder at Themis Trading. "The valuations (in U.S. stocks) are certainly at the upper level at this point. It's a market that's had to run and people are excited about it." The rally revived memories of the Reddit-driven meme stock frenzy of 2021 when amateur investors pushed up shares of video-game retailer GameStop (GME.N), opens new tab and cinema chain AMC (AMC.N), opens new tab, burning hedge funds that were on the other side of the trade. Opendoor Technologies (OPEN.O), opens new tab, an e-commerce platform for residential real estate, has soared more than 400% this month and is among the first companies to draw retail interest this time. Some market participants attributed the rally to bullish posts from last week by EMJ Capital portfolio manager Eric Jackson, who said his hedge fund had taken a position in Opendoor, projecting the stock to hit $82 in the longer term. Opendoor was last down 11% at $2.56. EMJ Capital did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for more details on their position in the company. Reddit's r/WallStreetBets, the 40th largest subreddit with 19 million members, was abuzz with screenshots of bullish bets on Opendoor and Kohl's by amateur traders. The growing interest in heavily shorted stocks comes after Kohl's (KSS.N), opens new tab surged 37.6% on Tuesday, with the highest daily inflow from mom-and-pop traders in about three years, Vanda Research data showed. Kohl's fell 6.2% and is now the second most trending ticker on Stocktwits, a retail investor-focused social media platform. Online gifts retailer (FLWS.O), opens new tab, which has a short interest on 71.66% of free float, jumped 23.1%. Moves in Beyond Meat and were most susceptible to a short squeeze, Ortex said. "With both stocks moving higher in premarket, the probability of that dynamic kicking in is rising, especially for BYND, where borrow demand is already high," Ortex's Peter Hillerberg said. A short squeeze occurs when investors who had sold borrowed shares in the hopes of making money from a share price decline are forced to buy shares to close their losing positions. About a quarter of total U.S. stock market orders are attributable to retail traders, data showed.
