The 10 most shorted ASX stocks plus the biggest risers and fallers – Week 30

Welcome back to the Short Seller Series – A recap of the most heavily shorted stocks on the ASX and those experiencing significant changes to short interest over the past week.

Short selling data is four days behind today's date because reporting is not mandatory until three business days after the trade. The tables below will compare:

• Week-on-week changes between 16 and 23 July 2024

• Month-on-month changes between 25 June and 23 July 2024

Most Shorted

Interesting takeaways:

• Pilbara Minerals and IDP Education remain the two most shorted stocks on the market. The two stocks have retained the top spots since early February

• Flight Centre experienced a slight pullback in short interest. The data (23-Jul) falls just outside of the company's latest trading update (24-Jul). The stock experienced a 4.7% sell-off on the day of the result, following a report indicating FY24 total transaction volumes of $23.7 billion. While this figure aligns with FY19 levels, it falls short of the company's guidance to 'surpass' it. TTV growth slowed in the second half of FY24 due to airfare deflation, with domestic and international airfares dropping by an average of 13% and 6% respectively.

Rising Shorts

Interesting takeaways:

• Paladin Energy's short interest has dramatically increased from around 2.7% in mid-June to year-to-date highs of 5.7%. This surge coincides with uranium spot prices hitting year-to-date lows of US$82/lb, down from January highs of US$105. Despite pressure on uranium prices, Paladin has made operational progress, with its June quarter production report noting 517,597 lbs of production, surpassing Citi estimates of 206,000. The company's FY25 guidance remains steady at 4.0 to 4.5 million lbs.

• Nick Scali has experienced a spike in short interest from 1.6% at the start of the month to 2.6%. This contrasts with Macquarie's latest high-frequency consumer data, which suggests "home furniture spend improved into the close of FY24, with a spike in spending in Jun-24 (a key promotional period). The proportion of total spend tracked largely in-line with the pcp."

Most Covered

Interesting takeaways:

• Australian Clinical Labs saw a 20.3 million share block trade at $2.25 (7% discount to last close). Major shareholder Ethical Partners announced it was closing its doors and returning funds to clients, which included liquidating its ACL position. In this scenario, Ethical Partners would have recalled the shares that were shorted.

• IPH: Macquarie recently reported that IPH's Australian filing volumes decreased by 2.8% year-on-year in the second half of FY24, underperforming the overall market, which saw a 1.4% decline. The analysts retained an Outperform rating, citing stabilising market share for Australia, Asia growth and management guidance for reduced gearing.