Short Interest In Conagra Brands Doubled

• Short sellers loaded up on this processed foods maker in the most recent period.
• Rumors had it possibly buying out a smaller rival.
• The share price rose during between the most recent settlement dates.

Conagra Brands Inc CAG is not only the maker of Peter Pan peanut butter, Egg Beaters, Marie Callender's frozen meals and many other packaged foods, it also caught the eye of short sellers in the two-week period that included the Thanksgiving holiday.

Between the November 15 and November 30 settlement dates, the Chicago-based maker of branded and customized food products saw the number of its shares short jump around 103 percent to almost 9.43 million. That was the greatest level of short interest in the past year, and it represented 2.2 percent of the total float. At the most recently average daily trading volume, it would take less than three days to cover all short positions.

During the period there was speculation that Conagra might buy out smaller rival Pinnacle Foods Inc PF. Conagra's share price ended the two-week short interest period more than 2 percent higher, though it was up more than 5 percent at one point. The S&P 500 was up a less than 1 percent in that time. Conagra has risen about 5 percent more since the beginning of this month. The analysts polled by Thomson/ First Call on average recommend buying shares.