Welcome to this week’s installment of “The Short Interest Report” – The Fly’s weekly recap of short interest trends among some of the most widely followed high-short-float stocks. Using the data from our partner Ortex.com, which utilizes the latest information from stock lenders to estimate short interest changes for thousands of publicly traded companies, this report will screen for some of biggest changes in short interest as a percentage of free float and days-to-cover ratios while also considering the short interest data on some of the more volatile and heavier-traded names of the week. Based on the availability of data from Ortex, the report tracks the trading period that covers prior Friday through Thursday of this week, excluding holidays. As a basis of comparison for stocks discussed below, the S&P 500 index was up 1.2%, the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.8%, the Russell 2000 index was up 0.7%, the Russell 2000 Growth ETF (IWO) was up 1.1% and the Russell 2000 Value ETF (IWN) was up 0.4% in the five-day trading session range through August 27.
Ortex-reported short interest in Under Armour (UAA) had come in from the 32% level seen in the final week of July to a trough of about 24% on August 12 as the stock had fallen about 30% in that time span, with the bulk of the move lower coming after the company’s Q1 results and a FY27 revenue guidance cut. With shares seemingly having found a bottom around $5, short positioning was also stabilizing through the middle weeks of the month, though this week’s downbeat results from Dick’s Sporting (DKS) reawakened the bearish narrative. Short interest as a percentage of free float rose from 24.3% to 27.7% even though the stock was down another 4.3% in the five-day period covered. Following last month’s swoon and with pressure building in athletic footwear, year-to-date, Under Armour is now up just 2%, though the stock is still vastly outperforming Nike’s (NKE) 38% 2026 decline.
