Marks & Spencer

Despite the recent bounce in Marks & Spencer's (MKS) share price - from 350p in early May to 400p today, short sellers have continued to increase their positions in the retail giant, with around 8% of M&S' Market Cap out on Loan (%MCOL, pre dividend) to investors. Although M&S has reported a 4.3% rise in annual profits to £1bn, the %MCOL has increased 100% since January this year. This graph shows a recent spike in stock on loan; but this is down to dividend trading, where investors hold on to the stock for tax arbitrage reasons. The genuine short interest occurred just before this spike. Utilisation is at 27%, so there is still plenty left to borrow. There are 16 Days to Cover. The average Utilisation for the rest of the FTSE 100 is 8%, and for the rest of the EMEA Retailing it is 34%. Other stocks in this sector with a high %MCOL include Signet (SIG) at 20%, Carphone Warehouse (CPW) at 16%, Next (NXT) at 13% and Kingfisher (KGF) at 12%.