Heavily Shorted Paramount Stock Higher on Buyout Talks

Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA) is undergoing a major shift. The media giant may fire Global Chief Executive Bob Bakish after his clash with Shari Redstone, whose family owns a majority of the media concern's voting shares. Paramount is currently negotiating the acquisition of Redstone's holding company by David Ellison's Skydance Media, with support from some investment firms.

Both Ellison and Redstone family are attempting to sweeten the deal for investors. The former offered to buy shares at a premium, and the latter agreed to let shareholders chime in on whether or not the deal should go through. At last check, PARA is up 4.3% to trade at $12.43.

The equity is running into resistance at the $13 level, which rejected last week's rally, but remains above the 40-day moving average. And though the shares bounced from an April  10, four-year low of $10.12, but have shed more than 47% in the last 12 months, and over 16% just this year.

Short sellers are already running for the exits, with short interest down 19.6% over the last two reporting periods. The 72.55 million shares sold short still make up 13.7% of the stock's available float. In other words, a continued unwinding of pessimism could continue to push PARA higher.