Beyond Meat Is Costliest U.S. Short Bet After 700% Surge
Short sellers paid the highest bid and offer borrow rate of 110%/138% on Beyond Meat, with the last transaction going off at 197%.
(Bloomberg) -- Looking to short Beyond Meat Inc. in the wake of the veggie-burger maker’s post-IPO rally? The cost of doing so is now the highest among all U.S. stocks.
Short sellers paid the highest bid and offer borrow rate of 110%/138% on Beyond Meat, with the last transaction going off at 197%, indicating that supply for shares to borrow is declining quickly, according to July 30 data from financial analytics firm S3 Partners. That’s more than more than double the cost of the second-most expensive short bet, Overstock.com Inc.
Beyond Meat has surged more than 700% since its May 1 debut. Short bets total $1.2 billion of market value. About 5.2 million shares are borrowed for short selling, almost 45% of the company’s free float.
Meanwhile, Overstock.com, which has long been the target of short sellers, has seen its stock fall roughly 65% since 2018 when it decided to pivot to cryptocurrencies. It has 17.9 million shares or 63% of its float shorted.
Rounding out the list from S3 are some names that have attracted a cult-like following as well. Turtle Beach, which captivated investors during the Fornite craze last year, at one point rose nearly 750% over a quarter. Pareteum also made the list.
| Ticker | Short interest | SI % Float | Bid | Offer | Last |
| BYND | $1,156,910,794 | 44.45% | 110.45% | 137.87% | 197.10% |
| OSTK | $395,430,521 | 63.21% | 54.84% | 68.62% | 80.26% |
| INS | $55,198,278 | 37.83% | 54.47% | 68.12% | 65.23% |
| TEUM | $77,668,034 | 21.99% | 46.24% | 57.62% | 61.69% |
| HEAR | $57,305,444 | 43.70% | 32.28% | 40.12% | 43.69% |
| PLUG | $104,740,724 | 19.20% | 30.02% | 37.62% | 35.15% |
| NBEV | $79,908,434 | 38.87% | 26.89% | 33.62% | 33.10% |
| AXDX | $299,290,301 | 56.30% | 26.89% | 33.37% | 43.84% |
| DDS | $631,319,030 | 82.61% | 26.01% | 32.62% | 82.31% |
| HIIQ | $159,283,664 | 68.53% | 22.47% | 28.12% | 27.30% |
To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Bissell-Linsk in New York at jbisselllins@bloomberg.net;Aoyon Ashraf in Toronto at aashraf7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brad Olesen at bolesen3@bloomberg.net, Richard Richtmyer, Jeremy R. Cooke
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.