Costco Wholesale - COST Short Interest Ratio & Short Volume

Short interest is the volume of Costco Wholesale shares that have been sold short but have not yet been covered or closed out. As of March 15th, traders have sold 3,520,000 shares of COST short. 0.80% of Costco Wholesale's shares are currently sold short. Learn More on Costco Wholesale's current short interest.

The short interest ratio, also known as the "days to cover ratio", is calculated by dividing the number of shares of a stock sold short divided by its average trading volume. A short interest ratio ranging between 1 and 4 generally indicates strong positive sentiment about a stock and a lack of short sellers. A short interest ratio of 10 or greater indicates strong pessimism about a stock. COST shares currently have a short interest ratio of 2.0. Learn More on Costco Wholesale's short interest ratio.

As of the most recent reporting period, the following institutional investors, funds, and major shareholders have reported short positions of Costco Wholesale: Parallax Volatility Advisers L.P., Point72 Middle East FZE, Jane Street Group LLC, Belvedere Trading LLC, Squarepoint Ops LLC, Laurion Capital Management LP, Millennium Management LLC, Maven Securities LTD, Boothbay Fund Management LLC, Centiva Capital LP, Nantahala Capital Management LLC, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd, Susquehanna International Group LLP, Verition Fund Management LLC, Marshall Wace LLP, Clear Street LLC, Twin Tree Management LP, Wells Fargo & Company MN, Barclays PLC, Capital Fund Management S.A., JPMorgan Chase & Co., QVR LLC, Bank of America Corp DE, Capstone Investment Advisors LLC, Optiver Holding B.V., Group One Trading L.P., IMC Chicago LLC, Valeo Financial Advisors LLC, Citigroup Inc., HighTower Advisors LLC, UBS Group AG, Herr Investment Group LLC, SpiderRock Advisors LLC, Cutler Group LLC CA, SG Americas Securities LLC, Simplex Trading LLC, Gladius Capital Management LP, Bank of Montreal Can, Wolverine Asset Management LLC, Concourse Financial Group Securities Inc., Calamos Advisors LLC, Steel Peak Wealth Management LLC, XR Securities LLC, Royal Fund Management LLC, Cadent Capital Advisors LLC, CenterStar Asset Management LLC, and New Capital Management LP. These positions are disclosed in Form 13F filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Companies that have a short interest as a percentage of float below 10% indicates positive investor sentiment and few short sellers. Stocks with a short interest percentage above 10% is considered high, suggesting some investors are pessimistic about the stock. Companies with a short interest percentage of 20% or more indicates widespread negative sentiment. 0.80% of Costco Wholesale's floating shares are currently sold short.

Costco Wholesale saw a increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totaling 3,520,000 shares, an increase of 14.7% from the previous total of 3,070,000 shares. Changes in short volume can be used to identify positive and negative investor sentiment. Investors that short sell a stock are betting that its price will decline in the future. An increase in short sale volume suggests bearish (negative) sentiment among investors. A decrease on short sale volume suggests bullish (positive) sentiment.

Costco Wholesale currently has issued a total of 443,480,000 shares. Some of Costco Wholesale's outstanding shares are available for trading, while others are subject to various restrictions. The public float, also referred to as floating shares or "the float", are shares that publicly owned, unrestricted and available to trade on the open market. Costco Wholesale currently has a public float of 441,310,000 shares.

0.80% of Costco Wholesale's shares are currently sold short. Here is how the short interest of companies in the sector of "retail/wholesale" compare to Costco Wholesale: Walmart Inc. (0.71%), Target Co. (1.97%), McDonald's Co. (0.86%), Alibaba Group Holding Limited (2.57%), The Home Depot, Inc. (1.28%), Lowe's Companies, Inc. (1.42%), Starbucks Co. (1.13%), Booking Holdings Inc. (1.63%), CVS Health Co. (1.00%), and PDD Holdings Inc. (2.34%).

As of the most recent reporting period, the following stocks had the largest short interest positions: Canadian Natural Resources Limited ($3.66 billion), Occidental Petroleum Co. ($2.62 billion), Coinbase Global, Inc. ($2.38 billion), T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. ($2.13 billion), Verisk Analytics, Inc. ($2.08 billion), Snowflake Inc. ($1.95 billion), Paramount Global ($1.78 billion), Etsy, Inc. ($1.60 billion), Teck Resources Limited ($1.51 billion), and Voya Financial, Inc. ($1.49 billion). View all of the most shorted stocks.

Short selling COST is an investing strategy that aims to generate trading profit from Costco Wholesale as its price is falling. COST shares are trading up $0.64 today. To short a stock, an investor borrows shares, sells them and buys the shares back on the public market later to return it to the lender. Short sellers are betting that a stock will decline in price. If the stock does drop after selling, the short seller buys it back at a lower price and returns it to the lender. The difference between the sell price and the buy price is the trader's profit.

A short squeeze for Costco Wholesale occurs when it has a large amount of short interest and its stock appreciates in price. This forces short sellers to cover their short interest positions by buying actual shares of COST, which in turn drives the price of the stock up even further.

Short interest is typically published by a stock exchange once per month. However, NASDAQ publishes a report for U.S. stocks, including COST, twice per month. The most recent reporting period available is March, 15 2023.