Three of the Most Shorted Stocks Today Paying Dividends

Investors Alley
Three of the Most Shorted Stocks Today Paying Dividends

Short selling is a trading strategy to bet that a stock
price will fall. However, if many traders all short the same stock and the
trade turns against them, they can get caught in a money-losing short squeeze.
For high-yield stocks, selling short is often a bet on a dividend cut. When
that doesn’t happen, the shorts can, well, take it in the shorts.

But if you know where to look, you can make significant
gains by going long on stocks with high short interest.

Last week a short squeeze played out in favor of those long Bed
Bath & Beyond (BBBY). Before the company reported earnings on October 1,
61% of the Bed Bath & Beyond float had been sold short. That level of short
selling in a stock is a tremendous sign that the shorts have overplayed the
bet. Unfortunately for the short sellers, Bed Bath and Beyond reported positive
earnings results. The news sent the stock higher, with the share price quickly
climbing by 35%.

A short squeeze occurs when traders shorting a stock all
jump in to buy back shares before the price moves even higher. That buying
frenzy actually drives the share price up, multiplying the short seller losses.

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For dividend-paying stocks with high short interest, two
events could trigger a short squeeze. One is what happened with Bed Bath &
Beyond: a positive earnings report when traders were expecting the opposite. A
dividend announcement or ex-dividend date may also trigger buying by short-sellers.
A trader who is short a stock on the ex-dividend date must pay the dividend on
the borrowed shares out of their own pocket.

Here are three more dividend-paying stocks with high short
interest. The trade here is to go long on the shares to profit from a potential
short squeeze.

Iron Mountain Inc. (IRM) is a real estate investment
trust (REIT) that provides document storage services. I’ve research and written
about this stock for my Dividend Hunter Insiders.

With it’s 9.2% yield and 10 straight years of dividend
increases it gets a lot of attention from income investors and generates quite
a few emails from my readers.

Financial data publishers show a 20.3% of the float short
interest for Iron Mountain. The company will declare 2020 third-quarter
earnings and its next dividend payment around the end of October.

The Iron Mountain business should be recession-resistant,
destroying short-sellers’ hopes.

IRM currently yields 9.2%.

ViacomCBS Inc. (VIAC) short interest totals 19% of
the total share float.

It seems that short sellers are betting that COVID-19
infections could shutdown NFL games, hurting a significant revenue source for
CBS. ViacomCBS reported solid, above-expectation earnings in August.

The company will report third-quarter results in
mid-November.

VIAC yields 3.5% and again goes ex-dividend at the end of
December.

The New York Times Company (NYT) is a top-10 shorted
stock with 15.5% of the float reported sold short.

The short thesis is that declining advertising revenue will
hurt profits.

The short danger is that a good earnings report could
trigger a short squeeze.

This stock may be a case where the shorts are right, but the
short interest is too high, making the trade more dangerous.

The next earnings release will be in early November.

The New York Times Company pays a small quarterly dividend
and yields 0.55%.

Three of the Most Shorted Stocks Today Paying Dividends
Tim Plaehn