Used car retailer Carvana was the most shorted stock on Wall Street, and many short sellers might have gotten burned. CNBC used FactSet to screen for stocks with the most short interest as of April 28, the most recent data point reported by exchanges. We looked at names that trade on the NYSE or Nasdaq with short positions amounting to at least 25% of their total float and market values of at least $100 million. Carvana had 58% of its outstanding shares sold short as of April 28, the largest percentage among stocks in our criteria. The used car company has soared 46% this week following a a near 30% rally last week on optimism that the firm could turn a profit soon. Carvana said last Thursday that it expects to achieve positive adjusted earnings during the second quarter of this yea r — earlier than many anticipated — as it executes a restructuring focused on cost-cutting and profits over growth. The embattled used car retailer has been working to reduce costs, narrow losses and increase profits per vehicle. The stock fell almost 100% in 2022 as it overspent to gain sales and increase vehicle inventory amid weakening demand. Another name that has an elevated level of short interest was Big Lots , a brick and mortar retailer. The short interest in Big Lots rose over 10% to 10.8 million shares as of April 28. Piper Sandler recently downgraded Big Lots to underweight from neutra l, citing deteriorating demand for big ticket discretionary items. Other highly shorted stocks included Allogene Therapeutics , Fisker and Novavax.
