The meme stock craze, which first captured headlines in early 2021, is experiencing a resurgence with retail investors buying shares of high short interest stocks, hand over fist. And as seen three years ago, investors who took the other side of this bet and shorted these otherwise struggling companies are left to cover their short positions.
This maneuver is called a short squeeze, as short sellers are forced to buy back shares at higher prices, driving the share price rapidly higher. Yesterday alone, short sellers lost over $1 billion in GameStop (NYSE:GME) alone and the figure will be much higher after today.
Last year alone, short sellers lost $195 billion according to Bloomberg, as big bets on Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock prices falling came full circle and crushed the pessimists.
Covering Short Positions Today
Of the stocks with the highest short interest traded on US exchanges, 85% of the stocks are in the green and many of them are hitting 52-week highs. The draw for retail investors piling into heavily shorted stocks is clear: sticking it to the man, Wall Street firms, while potentially making money doing so. Day traders are not as worried with the underlying business but driven to buying in a fear of missing out on quick returns.
Listed here are stocks with the highest percentage of short interest as a percentage of float. This means of all the shares available for trading, a percentage has been borrowed and sold by investors betting the stock price will fall.
| Company | Short Interest | Share Price and Today’s Performance |
| SunPower Corporation (Nasdaq:SPWR) | 94.02% | $5.05 (83.64%) |
| ARCA biopharma, Inc. (Nasdaq:ABIO) | 83.29% | $3.36 (-1.18%) |
| Biomea Fusion, Inc. (Nasdaq:BMEA) | 71.87% | $12.54 (9.52%) |
| Smart for Life, Inc. (Nasdaq:SMFL) | 63.68% | $2.84 (5.19%) |
| IGM Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq:IGMS) | 52.83% | $9.33 (0.65%) |
| Aesthetic Medical International Holdings Group Limited (Nasdaq:AIH) | 50.75% | $0.46 (-2.13%) |
| Cutera, Inc. (Nasdaq:CUTR) | 45.22% | $2.6 (16.59%) |
| Golden Heaven Group Holdings Ltd. (Nasdaq:GDHG) | 43.04% | $0.25 (-7.41%) |
| Beyond Meat, Inc. (Nasdaq:BYND) | 40.97% |
$10.07 (26.51%)
|
| Savers Value Village, Inc. (NYSE:SVV) | 40.81% | $14.63 (8.77%) |
| Arbor Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ABR) | 40.00% | $14.77 (8.05%) |
| Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) | 37.82% | $5.97 (6.99%) |
| Edible Garden AG Incorporated (Nasdaq:EDBL) | 37.81% | $3.81 (0.79%) |
| Trupanion, Inc. (Nasdaq:TRUP) | 38.08% | $33.37 (8.45%) |
| Sunnova Energy International Inc. (NYSE:NOVA) | 37.13% | $5.34 (27.75%) |
| DouYu International Holdings Limited (Nasdaq:DOYU) | 34.75% | $9.99 (1.73%) |
| Vital Energy, Inc. (NYSE:VTLE) | 34.39% | $49.31 (1.94%) |
| Zentalis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:ZNTL) | 33.82% | $11.93 (1.53%) |
| Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (Nasdaq:WOOF) | 33.50% | $1.99 (11.17%) |
| AnaptysBio, Inc. (Nasdaq:ANAB) | 32.55% | $24.45 (1.92%) |
| Upstart Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:UPST) | 31.82% | $29.61 (7.95%) |
| Lemonade, Inc. (NYSE:LMND) | 31.51% | $19.18 (2.95%) |
| C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) | 31.37% | $26.18 (4.93%) |
| Reneo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:RPHM) | 31.25% | $1.57 (-1.26%) |
| Carvana Co. (NYSE:CVNA) | 31.23% | $118.8 (1.57%) |
| Establishment Labs Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:ESTA) | 30.88% | $59.79 (6.41%) |
| NuZee, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUZE) | 30.86% | $2 (-5.21%) |
| Cassava Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAVA) | 31.06% | $22.49 (9.07%) |
| Tarsus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:TARS) | 30.75% | $38.23 (-0.36%) |
| BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:BTSG) | 30.38% | $11.44 (1.78%) |
| Kura Sushi USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:KRUS) | 29.97% | $106.5 (0.20%) |
| iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ:IRBT) | 29.86% | $13.45 (0.37%) |
| The Children’s Place, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE) | 29.53% | $12.09 (5.41%) |
| Olema Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:OLMA) | 29.51% | $9.3 (0.87%) |
| scPharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:SCPH) | 29.39% | $4.5 (3.45%) |
| 4D Molecular Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FDMT) | 28.81% | $25.93 (1.41%) |
| Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALLO) | 28.69% | $2.89 (-0.34%) |
| Tantech Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:TANH) | 28.54% | $0.55 (0.00%) |
| Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ:PLUG) | 28.28% | $3.73 (29.07%) |
| Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. (NASDAQ:RRGB) | 27.76% | $8.22 (5.66%) |
| ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORIC) | 27.58% | $9.05 (0.89%) |
| Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:PHAT) | 27.26% | $10.42 (7.76%) |
| Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CNK) | 27.26% | $18.37 (1.83%) |
| Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTZ) | 26.89% | $6.43 (17.55%) |
| Spirit Airlines, Inc. (NYSE:SAVE) | 26.81% | $4.84 (10.25%) |
| Editas Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT) | 26.79% | $5.87 (2.80%) |
| Scholar Rock Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:SRRK) | 26.73% | $14.01 (2.71%) |
| VIZIO Holding Corp. (NYSE:VZIO) | 26.14% | $10.43 (0.10%) |
| Cabaletta Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:CABA) | 26.01% | $11.42 (1.42%) |
| Nine Energy Service, Inc. (NYSE:NINE) | 25.59% | $1.92 (5.49%) |
| MicroVision, Inc. (NASDAQ:MVIS) | 25.46% | $1.56 (24.80%) |
| New Fortress Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:NFE) | 25.14% | $28.21 (4.17%) |
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