Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) Short Interest Ratio & Short Volume

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. BRK.B shares currently have a short interest ratio of 2.0. Learn More on Berkshire Hathaway's short interest ratio.

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. 0.66% of Berkshire Hathaway's floating shares are currently sold short.

Berkshire Hathaway saw a decrease in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totaling 8,570,000 shares, a decrease of 1.5% from the previous total of 8,700,000 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.

Berkshire Hathaway currently has issued a total of 2,156,850,000 shares. Some of Berkshire Hathaway'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. Berkshire Hathaway currently has a public float of 1,300,000,000 shares.

0.66% of Berkshire Hathaway's shares are currently sold short. Here is how the short interest of companies compare to Berkshire Hathaway: Apple Inc. (0.92%), Amazon.com, Inc. (0.93%), Alphabet Inc. (0.37%), American Express Company (2.16%), Bank of America Corporation (1.27%), Chevron Corporation (0.94%), CocaCola Company (The) (1.05%), Occidental Petroleum Corporation (2.91%), Visa Inc. (1.29%), The Progressive Corporation (1.22%),

As of the most recent reporting period, the following stocks had the largest short interest positions: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ($10.20 billion), S&P Global Inc. ($9.27 billion), Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited ($8.89 billion), Charter Communications, Inc. ($4.91 billion), Palo Alto Networks, Inc. ($3.82 billion), Wayfair Inc. ($3.47 billion), Lucid Group, Inc. ($3.06 billion), Zscaler, Inc. ($2.54 billion), Teladoc Health, Inc. ($2.27 billion), and Datadog, Inc. ($2.24 billion). View all of the most shorted stocks.

Short selling BRK.B is an investing strategy that aims to generate trading profit from Berkshire Hathaway as its price is falling. BRK.B shares are trading down $0.80 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 Berkshire Hathaway 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 BRK.B, 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 BRK.B, twice per month. The most recent reporting period available is December, 15 2021.