Men’s Wearhouse Owner Brings $43 Million Payday to Short Sellers

(Bloomberg) -- Short sellers got a big payday after disappointing earnings and a suspended dividend sent shares of Men’s Wearhouse parent Tailored Brands Inc. to their biggest drop of the year.

Short sellers earned around $43.4 million in mark-to-market profits as the shares fell around 28% on Thursday morning, according to Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of financial analytics firm S3 Partners. Short interest accounts for 53% of the available shares, up from 14% in January, according to data compiled by S3.

“Short sellers have been actively and consistently shorting the stock since February” even as shares rallied earlier this month, which indicates “high conviction” in the bearish view, Dusaniwsky wrote in an email. The amount of shares shorted is up 220% this year and borrow fees are running as high as 30% on increased demand, he said.

Read more: Tailored Brands Dividend Halt Won’t Change ‘Ill Fate,’ CFRA Says

To contact the reporter on this story: Janet Freund in New York at jfreund11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net

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