The 10 most shorted ASX stocks plus the biggest risers and fallers – Week 35

Welcome back to the Short Seller Series – A recap of the most heavily shorted stocks on the ASX and those experiencing significant changes to short interest over the past week.

Short selling data is four days behind today’s date because reporting is not mandatory until three business days after the trade. The tables below will compare:

• Week-on-week changes between 11 and 17 August 2026

• Month-on-month changes between 20 July and 17 August 2026

• Most covered and rising short tables record week-on-week changes of ~0.5% or more

Most Shorted

Short sellers are hopping back on Lotus Resources after a messy few weeks. The stock plunged 57% to 24 cents on Monday 27 July, its first session back from a six-week halt to finalise a funding package made up of a $60 million capital raise, $35 million in convertible notes and a $43 million prepayment facility. The raise was priced at 22 cents, a 66% discount, and roughly doubled shares on issue. At the time, Lotus’ short interest was sitting around 22.8%.

A massive gap down, and whiplash followed. Despite falling 57% on its first day back, it briefly rallied 22.9% off the open price to a high of 29.5 cents. Lotus added 26% the next day to 31.5 cents, then another 9.5% to 34.5 cents. Over the next three sessions from 30 July to 3 August, it crashed 32% to 23.5 cents. It was some extreme volatility after a harrowing raise and with the company still trying to get operationally back on track. Things have since settled, with the stock holding around the mid-20 cent mark, but the shorts are back.

Rising Shorts

There were plenty of results-driven increases in short interest. We’ll recap a few below.

• Iress (17-Aug) 1H26: Revenue up 2.5% to $250.0m (3% miss) but Cash EBITDA up 47.1% to $61.1m with margin up 740bps+ to 24.5%. Interim dividend 14.0 cps, up 27.3%. FY26 guidance a 3% miss at the midpoint on softer revenue, though Cash EBITDA growth of 21–26% sits well above the 13.2% expected. The stock tumbled 11.6% on the day, and down 13.5% over the following two sessions.

• Nick Scali (7-Aug) FY26: Revenue $516.7m (3% miss) and NPAT $75.7m in line, up 22%, with group gross margin up 210bps to 65.6% and the UK loss narrowed to $4.8m. The problem was the FY27 start, with ANZ written sales orders flat over five weeks against high-single-digit growth a year earlier. The stock fell 0.7% on the day, but down 10.9% since (10-24 Aug).

• Orora (13-Aug) FY26: A $616.6m statutory loss on a $742.8m Glass impairment, with underlying EBIT down 5% to $248.2m and underlying NPAT down 6% to $142.2m, both roughly in line. Dividend cut 10% to 9 cps and FY27 EBIT guided lower on higher D&A and a Saverglass drag management expects to persist through 1H27. The stock fell 2% on the day, and has traded relatively sideways since.

• Credit Corp (4-Aug) FY26: NPAT $105.5m mid-range against guidance, but the story was FY27 PDL investment guided at $200–280m, ~22% below expectations on a step-down in US deployment. Since upgraded — the ~$150m HSBC card book deal on 21-Aug lifted FY27 PDL guidance to $300–380m, all of it AU/NZ. The stock briefly rallied 4.8% on results day, but finished the session 7% lower. Its now trading back at pre-results levels.

• CAR Group (10-Aug) FY26: Adjusted revenue up 12% to $1.25bn (2% miss), EBITDA up 12% to $700m and NPAT up 11% to $407.2m, both in line; FY27 guides to 11–14% revenue and 9–12% NPAT growth. Short interest had run from ~1.5% at the start of the year to 11.48% into an in-line print. The stock rallied 9.9% on the day, now up 4.8% since the result (so given back half of the result-day gain).

• Life360 (11-Aug) Q2 CY26: Revenue up 38% to US$159m (2% beat) and adjusted EBITDA up 53% to US$31.1m (22% beat), with advertising up 315% to a record US$22.0m. FY26 guidance held rather than raised, management pointing to elevated Q4 advertising seasonality as the reason. The stock tumbled 19.4% on the day, and down 11.4% since (12-24 Aug).

Short sellers appear to be targeting the names that reported weaker-than-expected results, looking to capture more downside as share prices keep trending lower post-earnings.

Most Covered

Not much activity among the most heavily covered stocks. Droneshield was trading around a nine-month low on 31 July before a four-day rally from 3 to 6 August totalling 34.5%, which may have rattled a few shorts.

Australian Clinical Labs handed down its FY26 result on 17 August. Revenue fell 0.7% on softer market growth and Medicare cuts to B12 and urine tests, but underlying EBIT rose 1.7% with 20bps of margin expansion to 9.4% and underlying EPS up 8.5% to 18.3 cents. It was one of those better-than-feared results. The stock surged 14.8% on the day and has added another 11% since, so anyone short here is getting obliterated.