Why Short Sellers Dumped Citigroup Ahead Of The Election

• Short sellers shied away from this banking giant after Q3 earnings.
• The timing looks good as shares have been on a tear since the election.
• A big new upgrade has boosted shares even more.

A post-election upgrade from Morgan Stanley has provided an extra boost to Citigroup Inc C shares, which were already up more than 7 percent since the beginning of November. Those short sellers that got out of the way of this stock ahead of the election now look to have made a wise move.

This investment banking and financial services giant saw the number of its shares pull back more than 11 percent to more than 28.93 million shares between the October 14 and October 31 settlement dates. That was about 1 percent of the total float, and note that the highest level of short interest in the past year was more than 37 million shares early in the year. At the most recently average daily volume, it would take less than 2 days to cover all short positions.

Citigroup extended its streak of quarterly earnings beats in mid-October. The share price ended the two-week short interest period around 1 percent higher, while the S&P 500 was down fractionally. However, in the past week, shares are up more than 10 percent and approaching the 52-week high of $55.37 hit almost a year ago.