Kohl’s shares rise amid short interest, Reddit posts

Shares of Kohl’s surged Tuesday in volatile trading that echoed the meme stock rallies of recent years.

The legacy department store’s stock more than doubled from Monday’s close of $10.42 per share, only to see those gains wiped out about a half an hour after markets opened. Trading in the stock was temporarily halted at one point Tuesday morning.

Still, shares closed about 37% higher on the day.

Meanwhile, the trading volume by late morning Tuesday was almost 17 times higher than the average over the past 30 days. 

There were no apparent corporate announcements or major stock ratings to send shares soaring on Tuesday, but Kohl’s has all the markings of a meme stock. It’s a legacy department store that many retail investors grew up shopping at, and it’s heavily shorted, with about 50% of shares outstanding sold short, according to FactSet. 

It has a sprawling retail footprint of more than 1,100 stores and has been the subject of takeover offers, activist campaigns and bankruptcy watchlists in recent years. 

“There’s a lot of irrational exuberance around the stock. It’s a very similar thing to what we saw with Bed Bath and Beyond back in the day,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData. “There’s nothing really that Kohl’s has done to fundamentally earn this level of increase. The business fundamentals remain quite weak.”

There has been recent chatter around Kohl’s stock in the Wall Street Bets forum on Reddit, which became popular during the GameStop short squeeze in 2021. Some pointed to it as a potential squeeze candidate given the short interest and its name recognition among retail investors.

When investors flock to a heavily shorted stock, those with short positions may buy more to cover their losses, which can drive the price higher. 

Beyond its share price, Kohl’s business has been struggling for several years. Its sales are falling, it faces rising competition and it is currently led by an interim CEO after its former CEO Ashley Buchanan was ousted over a conflict-of-interest scandal. 

In May, Kohl’s said it expects sales to fall between 5% and 7% in fiscal 2025, with comparable sales down between 4% and 6%.