CH Robinson, American Airlines among March's most shorted industrial stocks; General Dynamics least shorted

The S&P 500 industrial index (SP500-20) rose about 4% in March, outperforming the broader index, which grew about 2.28% during that month. Over that period, short interest in the sector saw a very marginal bump.

Average short interest across S&P 500 industrial stocks inched to 2.03% as of March end from 2.01% as of the end of February. This further compares with 1.98% as of the end of January.

The sector's accompanying ETF, Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund ETF (NYSEARCA:XLI) saw its largest contributors Caterpillar (CAT), GE Aerospace (GE), and Uber (UBER) hold short interests of 2.62%, 1.04%, and 2.60% respectively, as of March end. This compares with 2.79%, 0.83%, and 2.85% as of February end.

Ride-hailing and delivery services provider Uber (UBER) recently topped Seeking Alpha's Quant recommendation in the sub-index, scoring 4.90 out of 5 on its profitability and growth prospects.

Earlier this month, former industrial conglomerate General Electric started trading as a pure-play aviation company GE Aerospace (GE). Since then, the company has received a slew of rating upgrades from Wall Street firms.

Other behemoths in the sub-index Honeywell (HON), United Parcel Services (UPS), 3M (MMM), and Automatic Data Processing (ADP) held short interests of 1.23%, 1.22%, 1.37%, and 1.12%.

Stocks with the largest and least short positions

Ranked by short interest as a percentage of shares float

Among the bunch, freight transportation services firm C.H. Robinson Worldwide maintained its position as the most shorted stock at 9.31%, compared to 6.63% a month ago.

Next in line was American Airlines Group (AAL), holding a short interest of 6.19% compared to 5.77% last month. Other airlines like United Airlines (UAL), Southwest (LUV), and Delta (DAL) had short interests of 5.12%, 2.69%, and 2.75%.

On Wednesday, Delta topped first-quarter estimates owing to accelerated corporate travel demand and continued international travel strength. Looking ahead, the carrier said strong travel demand is continuing in the current quarter.

On the other hand, General Dynamics (GD), too, maintained its position as the least shorted stock at 0.55%, compared to 0.60% a month before. Other defense contractors like Lockheed Martin (LMT), and Northrop Grumman (NOC) had short interests of 0.90% and 1.23%.

RTX saw its short bets further reduce to 2.60% from 3.35% last month, and 3.92% as of January end.

In terms of sub-sectors, Software remained the most shorted industry within the Industrial sector with 4.14% short interest at the end of March, compared to 5.04%. This is a further reduction from 5.29% as of January end.

Industrial Conglomerates, Environmental and Facilities Services, and Ground Transportation were among the least shorted industries within the sector, with short interests of 1.16%, 0.58%, and 1.20%, respectively.