Financial services company Hargreaves Lansdown has attracted the attention of short-sellers, with a record 5.69% of the company’s shares on loan to hedge funds including AQR Capital Management, Hound Partners and Marshall Wace, according to a report by This Is Money.
The short positions equate to a £230 million bet against against the firm as it struggles to sustain the boom it witnessed during the pandemic.
The report says official data shows that short positions in Hargreaves Lansdown have roughly doubled in the past six months.
Hargreaves Lansdown, was among a group of trading and investment platforms including AJ Bell and CMC Markets, who benefitted form a big increase in people dabbling in the stock markets during lockdown. The return to normal life and recent sharp rises in inflation though, has seen activity slow with Hargreaves Lansdown’s shares falling by a third so far this year as a result. And some hedge funds clearly think the stock has further to fall.
