S&P's Most Shorted Stocks
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Among the 20 most shorted stocks in the S&P 500 index, Netflix has the largest decrease in short interest in the past month, down 9 percent, while that of Safeway increased the most, up 18 percent.
First Solar continues to have the highest short-interest, standing at 35 percent, according to the latest figures compiled by CNBC.
Short interest measures the total number of shares of a security that has been sold short, expressed as a percent of total tradable shares.
Investors track short-interest levels to gain a sense of where a stock might be headed, along with some insight into whether any positive news might force short traders to cover their positions, pushing stocks higher.
Barnes & Noble and Diamond Foods, for example, have some of the highest ratios in the S&P 1,500 index, with more than 50 percent of their float sold short.
Since late November, R.R. Donnelley & Sons, Borgwarner and Safeway joined the top 20 most shorted companies in the S&P 500 index, while AK Steel, Ecolab and Moody's have fallen off the list.
Here is a look at the most heavily shorted stocks, along with the percent change in stock price and short interest in the past month.
Follow Giovanny Moreano on Twitter:@giovannymoreano
