Stocks With The Highest Short Interest - New Feature Announcement

Author's Avatar
Dec 12, 2013
Article's Main Image
GuruFocus is glad to announce that we have created a new page for stocks with the highest short interest .


The short interest is measured by the Short Percentage of Float. The Short Percentage of Float is at least 10%. Users can check the stocks with the highest short interest in different market caps, predictability, and industries. The results can be views in lists, charts, and customized list. Short interest can also be combined with more than 120 other filters in All-In-One Screener.


When we combine the short interest with Predictability Rank, we can see that many highly predictable businesses are also heavily shorted. Here is the list:


Total Records: 15


SymbolCompanyPriceShort % Of Float% Above 52-W Low% Off 52-W HighP/EYield (%)Market Cap ($Mil)
WRLD World Acceptance Corporation $85.70 48.91% 17.5 20.6 10.30 0.00 984.154
BRLI Bio-Reference Labs, Inc. $27.00 43.97% 13.5 28.9 15.80 0.00 746.347
LQDT Liquidity Service, Inc. $21.78 38.09% 5.8 50.9 17.30 0.00 699.676
BKE Buckle, Inc. $50.30 27.49% 17.5 12.8 14.60 1.59 2438.536
AIRM Air Methods Corp. $54.68 22.14% 41.0 4.7 30.30 0.00 2137.830
RMD ResMed Inc. $45.49 21.36% 10.5 20.7 21.00 1.85 6463.284
CRR Carbo Ceramics, Inc. $120.17 20.79% 48.3 9.3 33.00 0.95 2777.881
HIBB Hibbett Sports Inc $64.34 20.57% 22.6 2.2 22.60 0.00 1661.934
MED Medifast, Inc. $26.09 19.33% 16.6 21.6 17.50 0.00 362.241
MNRO Monro Muffler Brake, Inc. $50.78 19.09% 38.1 5.1 35.30 0.43 1594.796
PRAA Portfolio Recovery Associates, Inc. $52.17 16.79% 38.0 18.4 16.10 0.00 2595.439
NRCIB National Research Corporation $34.77 16.56% 58.9 25.3 13.10 3.28 841.024
SAM Boston Beer Company, Inc. $225.82 15.11% 50.1 15.0 44.20 0.00 2896.965
NFLX Netflix, Inc. $363.98 13.52% 76.8 6.5 305.00 0.00 21568.653
SOHU Sohu.com Inc $66.42 10.12% 42.8 23.9 506.90 0.00 2543.421

World Acceptance Corporation (WRLD, Financial)

The payday loan company has had tremendous growth in both revenue and earnings. It is revenue grew more than 18% annually over the past 10 years.


1386858138023.png


In the mean time, the company has been buying back shares at 5% a year. It has reduced its shares by 40% since 2005.


1386858261784.png


But the stock is hated by Wall Street and close to 50% of the float is shorted. It is traded at a P/E ratio of just above 10, far below its Peter Lynch Earnings Line:


1386858261784.png


Bio-Reference Labs, Inc. (BRLI, Financial)



This is a fast growing company that does medical testing. The revenue growth is more than 20% a year. The company has very strong balance sheet and great cash flow. But Wall Street hates it, too and more than 40% of the float is short. If World Acceptance has regulatory risk, we don’t anything with BRLI. The company even sees it profit margin growing as it expands:


1386858716374.png


It is traded above its Peter Lynch Earning Line, but it is justified as the company has higher growth.


1386858410161.png


Other examples include Buckle (BKE, Financial), Netflix (NFLX, Financial) and Boston Beer (SAM, Financial). Here are their Peter Lynch charts.


1386858813189.png


1386858931291.png


1386858906673.png


We don’t understand why short sells hate them. But the short sellers definitely did not fare well with their shorts as all the those stocks have more than doubled over the past three years.


In the next days we will release the page which shows the history of Short Interest of all stocks.


Sometimes buying stocks that Wall Street hates can be very profitable. Take a look the stocks with highest short interest.