On Wednesday, Lyft Inc (LYFT) posted its 1st quarter revenues that increased by +23% year-on-year and ridership that increased by +3%. Its stock price rose by over +15% in aftermarket trading and followed that up with a +21.67% run-up today.
Lyft’s short interest is $507 million, 19.39 million shares shorted, 9.25% of its float.
Shorts were relatively inactive ahead of its earnings announcement with shares shorted decreasing by -44 thousand shares, -0.23%, over the last month and increasing by +275 thousand shares, +1.44%, in the week prior to earnings.
Uber Technologies (UBER) just posted a larger than expected 1st quarter loss, with two-thirds of the losses generated from its non-core business investments. Bookings were up +8%, primarily due to Uber Eats activity. Uber was up over 11% in today’s trading but is following that up with almost -3% drop in today’s aftermarket.
Uber’s short interest is $1.46 billion, 52.32 million shares shorted, 5.92% of its float.
UBER shorts were cutting their exposure ahead of its earnings announcement with 4.07 million shares, -7.22%, of short covering over the last month and 5.50 million shares, -9.52%, of short covering over the last week.
UBER and LYFT are the largest and 4th largest shorts in the domestic trucking sector:
And LYFT and UBER were two of the most profitable shorts in the trucking sector.
While LYFT short sellers were not expecting a strong quarter and kept increased their short exposure slightly, UBER shorts were actively cutting their exposure in anticipation of a stronger than expected quarter. Both short sellers made the wrong choice at the fork in the road.
LYFT shorts were down -$110 million in mark-to-market losses today, bringing year-to-date profits down to +$166 million and UBER shorts were down -$163 in mark-to-market losses today, dragging year-to-date P\L into the red, down -$38 million.
LYFT is down -1.16% in aftermarket trading, recouping +$7.2 million of mark-to-market profits for short sellers, while UBER is down -2.36% in aftermarket trading, adding +$38.2 million of profits to the shorts.
Looking at short selling trends over time provides insight into overall market sentiment as well as the strength of bearish conviction in individual equities. Our Blacklight SaaS platform and Black APP provides an up to date view of short selling and short covering on an equity, sector, index or country-wide basis allowing investors\traders to better manage their existing long and short positions as well as generate new trade ideas.
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Contact: Ihor.Dusaniwsky@S3Partners.com
Managing Director Predictive Analytics, S3 Partners, LLC
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