Ever since the one-two punch of Taikang Life Insurance Co.’s acquisition of 13.5% of Sotheby’s stock and the company’s strategically assembled earnings announcement for Q2, BID has been trading above the historically important $40 line.

In trading so far, the stock has remained above $40. But stock market observers report that analysts still have a consensus target price of $35 and now there are reports of massive short interest in the shares:

Sotheby’s (BID) current short interest stands at 43 million shares. It has increased by 242% from the same period of last month. Around 102% of the company’s shares, which are float, are short sold. With a 10-days average volume of 1.35 million shares, the number of days required to cover the short positions stand at 32 days.

Sotheby’s (NYSE:BID) nearing 52-week high, short interest surging  (Street Report)