Hedge funds are betting big against these stocks and it's working

Published Wed, Mar 13 20241:13 PM EDTUpdated Wed, Mar 13 20242:28 PM EDT

As equities continue to rally, some hedge funds are betting against a handful of companies, ranging from players in the electric vehicle market to a robot maker — and many of these names are performing poorly so far this year. Strong investor sentiment has continued to power this year's market rally even as doubt lingers about the trajectory of interest rate cuts, with stocks notably rising on Tuesday after February U.S. inflation data came close to in line with expectations. The S & P 500 , which entered another bull market last month, is up 0.9% so far this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.1% week to date while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added only 0.6% as the artificial intelligence-inspired rally begins to lose some steam. But while the broader market wades further into the green, some stocks with heavy short interest, which normally get squeezed higher during strong market rallies, are taking a dive. The latest short interest data reveals several stocks that are down both month to date and since the start of the new year. CNBC Pro screened FactSet data for stocks trading on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Exchange with the most short interest as of Feb. 29. Each of the stocks has a market capitalization of at least $100 million and short interest representing at least 25% of their float, or the number of outstanding shares that are available to be traded. Short interest measures the amount of shares an investor has borrowed and sold with the hope of buying the stock back later at a lower price and reaping the difference. Here are the names of these heavily shorted stocks: EV-related stocks and auto stocks are an ongoing target of hedge funds — and they're not performing well this year. EV player Lucid Group saw a continued amount of short interest, amounting to 29.5% of the stock's float as of the end of last month, while EV charging stations operator ChargePoint Holdings saw short interest climb just over 1% to about 25% of its total float. Shares of Lucid are down more than 30% this year, plummeting after the company on Feb. 21 posted a fourth-quarter revenue miss as losses widened. ChargePoint's stock price has fallen roughly 21.5% year to date and more than 11% this month alone, meanwhile, after the company posted a significant quarterly revenue loss on March 5. The company could be a "potential long-term winner," TD Cowen had said in a Feb. 1 note, while acknowledging that this year would likely be another challenging one due to a slowdown in global EV delivery growth. There is also a significant amount of short interest, roughly 33%, in both Luminar Technologies , which makes technology for self-driving cars, and used car retailer Carvana . Luminar's stock has plummeted 41% while Carvana's stock has gained 47% this year. Jefferies upgraded Carvana from hold to underperform and raised its price target by $55 to $85 on Tuesday, citing "a more attractive risk-reward" profile after the company topped fourth-quarter profit estimates. Other stocks with notable losses so far this year include consumer robots maker iRobot , plant-based meat producer Beyond Meat , residential solar company Sunnova Energy and several smaller health-care names, such as Recursion Pharmaceuticals , which saw short interest climb 12% to account for 29% of its float. One stock with heavy short interest that has significantly outperformed this month, on the other hand, is space exploration company Intuitive Machines , which has soared 116% so far this year after the company's first lunar mission completed further milestones in approaching the moon. Short interest in the stock grew a whopping 44.9% during the latter half of February. — Additional reporting by CNBC's Nick Wells.