Avis Stock Jumps Over 600% in a Month as Short Squeeze Builds

The Avis stock surge has pushed CAR shares up over 600% in a single month, with an 18% jump on Tuesday alone coming right after a 23% gain on Monday. At the time of writing, shares also hit $763 in after-hours trading, well above the session close of $713.97.

The trigger sits in a near-impossible ownership structure: Pentwater Capital Management built a 22% stake in April, while long-term holder SRS Investment Management already controlled nearly half the outstanding shares. Together, the two investors held the equivalent of 108% of Avis shares when you include synthetic positions via swaps, according to Deutsche Bank. That left short sellers with almost nowhere to run.

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Avis Stock Surge Driven by Short Squeeze & CAR Rally Momentum

How the Float Got This Tight

Right now, short interest in Avis stands at 25% of shares outstanding, per S&P Global Market Intelligence. A ratio above 10% already qualifies as high; anything past 20% signals extreme squeeze risk. With Pentwater and SRS locking up the overwhelming majority of available shares, actual tradeable float has shrunk to almost nothing. The Avis stock surge keeps feeding itself: every price jump pushes more shorts toward margin calls, which forces more covering, which drives the car stock rally even further.

Volume on April 20 hit 12,294,839 shares, a figure running 668% above the 65-day average. The Avis stock 600% gain is still building, and that kind of volume tells you this car stock rally has real urgency behind it, not just noise.

The GameStop Parallel

The current Avis stock short squeeze draws obvious comparisons to GameStop in 2021, when short interest topped 100% of float and the stock climbed over 1,500% in two weeks. Avis also has its own history with sudden moves. In November 2021, CAR shares more than doubled in a single session, jumping from $163 to $357 after a strong earnings report and news that the company bought back 16% of its own stock. 

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This time around, the Avis stock surge has nothing to do with earnings. It is purely a positioning story, and the structural setup is considerably tighter than anything seen in that 2021 episode.

What Deutsche Bank Said About the Avis Stock Surge

Deutsche Bank research analyst Chris Woronka flagged the setup early in April:

“Historical context for comparable short squeeze situations, as well as some apparent limitations on SRS + Pentwater’s ability to sell shares in the near term, both suggest to us that the stock could still squeeze higher from here, perhaps materially so.”

Woronka also added:

“These factors are, of course, independent of incrementally positive sentiment on car rental fundamentals.”

That last line puts the whole Avis shares story in perspective. None of this connects to car rental demand or company performance. The Avis stock short squeeze runs entirely on ownership mechanics, and the stock shows no signs of slowing on its own. Two institutional players control more shares than technically exist in the float, trapped short sellers keep buying to cover, and the surge feeds on that pressure with each session.

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The Avis stock 600% gain also happened without the Reddit-driven retail coordination that fueled GameStop. Here, institutional filings alone set the whole thing off. The latest Avis stock news keeps pointing the same way: tighter float, more pressure on shorts, and no obvious exit in sight, which is exactly what keeps the Avis stock surge going.