Walmart - WMT Short Interest Ratio & Short Volume

Short interest is the volume of Walmart shares that have been sold short but have not yet been closed out or covered. As of March 15th, traders have sold 9,960,000 shares of WMT short. 0.71% of Walmart's shares are currently sold short. Learn More on Walmart'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. WMT shares currently have a short interest ratio of 2.0. Learn More on Walmart's short interest ratio.

As of the most recent reporting period, the following institutional investors, funds, and major shareholders have reported short positions of Walmart: Parallax Volatility Advisers L.P., Natixis, Altshuler Shaham Ltd, Point72 Middle East FZE, Jane Street Group LLC, Squarepoint Ops LLC, Laurion Capital Management LP, Lombard Odier Asset Management USA Corp, Millennium Management LLC, Maven Securities LTD, Nomura Holdings Inc., Boothbay Fund Management LLC, Jefferies Financial Group Inc., Point72 Asset Management L.P., Point72 Hong Kong Ltd, Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft, Susquehanna International Group LLP, Marshall Wace LLP, 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, Creative Planning, Capstone Investment Advisors LLC, Optiver Holding B.V., CI Investments Inc., Group One Trading L.P., Cibc World Markets Corp, IMC Chicago LLC, Citigroup Inc., HighTower Advisors LLC, UBS Group AG, 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., XR Securities LLC, and CenterStar Asset Management LLC. 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. 0.71% of Walmart's floating shares are currently sold short.

Walmart saw a drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totaling 9,960,000 shares, a drop of 21.0% from the previous total of 12,600,000 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.

Walmart currently has issued a total of 2,695,656,000 shares. Some of Walmart'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. Walmart currently has a public float of 1,410,000,000 shares.

0.71% of Walmart's shares are currently sold short. Here is how the short interest of companies in the sector of "retail/wholesale" compare to Walmart: Costco Wholesale Co. (0.80%), The Home Depot, Inc. (1.28%), Alibaba Group Holding Limited (2.57%), McDonald's Co. (0.86%), Lowe's Companies, Inc. (1.42%), Starbucks Co. (1.13%), Amazon.com, Inc. (0.55%), PriceSmart, Inc. (2.39%), Target Co. (1.97%), and Dollar General Co. (2.13%).

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 WMT is an investing strategy that aims to generate trading profit from Walmart as its price is falling. WMT shares are trading up $1.40 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 Walmart occurs when it has a large amount of short interest and its stock increases in price. This forces short sellers to cover their short interest positions by buying actual shares of WMT, 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 WMT, twice per month. The most recent reporting period available is March, 15 2023.