Bears Pile In: Cerebras, Rental Cars, Lucid in Focus

Short sellers made their biggest moves in nearly a year this week. ORTEX data through June 11 shows several names with sharp spikes in short interest.

Cerebras Systems saw the most dramatic shift. Its SI % of free float jumped from 6.25% to 25.61% in just seven days — a gain of over 19 percentage points. The AI chip IPO remains a hot short target amid valuation skepticism.

The rental car sector is under heavy pressure. Avis Budget Group sits at 45.84% SI FF, up 6.2 points in a week. Hertz is close behind at 44.52%, also up 4.6 points. Bears are betting the EV fleet transition remains a costly headache.

Lucid Group drew attention beyond just short interest. Its cost to borrow soared from 11.2% to 44.4% APR — a jump of 33 percentage points in seven days. That spike signals intense demand from short sellers to borrow stock.

Grindr also moved sharply, with SI FF rising from 12% to 22.2% over the week. No major news catalyst was visible, making the move stand out.

Birkenstock crept up to 30.2% SI FF, adding 8.4 points. Space stocks Virgin Galactic and AST SpaceMobile dominated social chatter Friday, with a short-seller report targeting the sector circulating widely online.