Yum! Brands Short Interest Ratio and Short Volume

Short interest is the volume of Yum! Brands shares that have been sold short but have not yet been covered or closed out. As of March 15th, investors have sold 4,610,000 shares of YUM short. 1.54% of Yum! Brands' shares are currently sold short. View details.

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. Yum! Brands currently has a short interest ratio of 3.0.

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. 1.54% of Yum! Brands' floating shares are currently sold short.

Yum! Brands saw a increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totaling 4,610,000 shares, an increase of 10.6% from the previous total of 4,170,000 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.

Yum! Brands currently has issued a total of 298,600,000 shares. Some of Yum! Brands' 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. Yum! Brands currently has a public float of 299,470,000 shares.

1.54% of Yum! Brands' shares are currently sold short. Here is how the short interest of companies in the sub-industry of "restaurants" compare to Yum! Brands: McDonald's Co. (0.80%), Starbucks Co. (1.18%), Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (2.29%), Darden Restaurants, Inc. (0.00%), Domino's Pizza, Inc. (7.08%), Texas Roadhouse, Inc. (4.47%), The Wendy's Company (5.26%), Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (6.50%), Papa John's International, Inc. (9.23%), and Brinker International, Inc. (7.54%).

As of the most recent reporting period, the following stocks had the largest short interest positions: Aon plc ($5.64 billion), Analog Devices, Inc. ($5.59 billion), Charter Communications, Inc. ($5.47 billion), ViacomCBS Inc. ($4.95 billion), Baidu, Inc. ($3.51 billion), Snap Inc. ($3.18 billion), Airbnb, Inc. ($2.38 billion), The Kroger Co. ($2.28 billion), Expedia Group, Inc. ($2.24 billion), and Bilibili Inc. ($2.06 billion). View all of the most shorted stocks.

Short selling YUM is an investing strategy that aims to generate trading profit from Yum! Brands as its price is falling. Yum! Brands' stock is trading up $0.30 today. To short Yum! Brands 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 Yum! Brands 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 Yum! Brands 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 YUM, 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 YUM, twice per month. The most recent reporting period available is March, 15 2021.