NEW YORK (Reuters) – Short interest in GameStop Corp declined as the video game retailer’s stock price dropped and the number of shares shorted fell modestly, according to the latest data from analytics firm S3 Partners.
The value of GameStop short interest stood at $5.81 billion, down from $8.8 billion a day earlier, according to Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3. The number of shares shorted fell by about 1 million to 26.09 million, according to S3.
With GameStop shares falling to $130.25 early on Tuesday, GameStop shorts were up $2.5 billion on a mark-to-market basis, cutting their year-to-date loss to $10.1 billion, according to S3.
GameStop shares, which soared last week as they became the center of a battle between small investors and financial institutions, have dropped sharply this week, falling over 50% in early Tuesday trade.
With the number of shares shorted falling, “it looks like the long shareholders are starting to get out of some of their positions,” Dusaniwsky said.
(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Nick Macfie)
