We recently published a list of the 10 Best High Short Interest Stocks to Buy Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR) stands against other high short interest stocks to buy now.

Aditya Bhave, BofA Securities head of US Economics, joined ‘Power Lunch’ on CNBC on April 17 to talk about whether tariffs are ultimately inflationary, disinflationary, or deflationary. Aditya Bhave responded that the impact depends on the magnitude of the uncertainty shock. He explained that tariffs are generally stagflationary, which means that they contribute to both inflation and economic stagnation. However, he also emphasized that it’s not just the content of the trade policy announcements that matters, but also the disruptive way in which these policies have been communicated, which has increased uncertainty for businesses. He noted that there is a scenario where the uncertainty caused by these policies could outweigh their stagflationary effects, making tariffs disinflationary instead. Bhave also referenced Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s recent hawkish remarks and drew a parallel to Powell’s stance during the 2021–2022 rate hiking cycle.

He highlighted Powell’s assertion that sustained full employment is not possible without price stability, which is a justification that Powell previously used for aggressive rate hikes even during a technical recession. Bhave believes the Fed is likely to maintain its focus on price stability and continue its current policy approach in the near term. Earlier during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fed and Powell in particular, notably responded to tariff-induced supply chain disruptions by aggressively stimulating the economy. Bhave argued that this aggressive response came after and not during the initial supply chain disruptions, and that while the Fed may have acted a bit late, it ultimately raised rates sharply by 425 basis points in a single year. He does not expect the Fed to repeat such aggression, but believes that the case for holding rates steady is strong right now.

Our Methodology

We first sifted through stock screeners to find companies with a short interest between 10% and 25%. We then selected the 10 stocks that were the most shorted as of April 16, but at the same time were popular among elite hedge funds and that analysts were bullish on. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of the number of hedge funds that have stakes in them, as of Q4 2024. The hedge fund data was sourced from Insider Monkey’s database, which tracks the moves of over 1000 elite money managers.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

A line of cable boxes and modern televisions, representing the company's video services.

Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR)

Short % of Float As of April 16: 15.92%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 71

Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR) is a broadband connectivity and cable operator company that serves residential and commercial customers in the US. It offers subscription-based internet, video, and mobile & voice services. It also offers a suite of broadband connectivity services, Spectrum internet products, in-home & out-of-home WiFi, and Spectrum WiFi services.

The company is focused on using its converged connectivity capabilities, with Spectrum Mobile as a central pillar. The Spectrum Mobile business added over 2 million Spectrum Mobile lines in 2024, establishing its position as the fastest-growing mobile provider in the US. While Spectrum Mobile’s penetration stands at ~8% of Charter’s 57 million residential and SMB passings, its substantial subscriber additions were a key factor in the company’s overall 1% revenue growth for the full year.

The company’s strategy, reinforced by the Life Unlimited brand refresh, emphasizes bundled services such as mobile at competitive prices. Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR) believes that the ability to integrate its wireline and wireless services offers a unique value proposition.

Conventum – Alluvium Global Fund increased its position in the company and stated the following regarding Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

“We discussed in our last report that Liberty Broadband’s 40.7% return in the September quarter reflected an impending deal (explained here) with its main investment, Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR). In early November Charter released its third quarter update, which the market (and us) viewed favourably, and Liberty’s share price rose 11.7% on the day. As a result, the Fund’s position in Liberty reached 8.4%. Cognisant of the 5/10/40 UCITS restrictions (yet wanting to maintain our position in the underlying assets) we sold a fair chunk of Liberty (to get it under 5%) and bought a little Charter. A short time later the companies reached agreement on the consolidation deal. The market’s reaction (Liberty’s share price fell 4.7% on the day, whereas Charter’s rose 3.6%) suggests this was less favourable to Liberty than anticipated (we suspect due to the long timeframe). And as Liberty fell 3.2% and Charter rose 5.8% over the quarter, the discount that Liberty trades (to the implied Charter price) has only widened. This is unwarranted in our view, particularly as one of Liberty’s businesses, GCI, is not part of the deal. Our focus is on having access to these assets at the best possible price. We are not perturbed by the deal, whether or not it consummates, nor its timeline. And, there are no additional costs to holding Liberty rather than Charter (nor any foregone dividends). On our analysis, these US broadband assets (via the Charter corporate structure) are providing a circa 9.0% earnings yield and 6.5% free cash flow yield, which we are confident will continue to grow. We are comfortable with the Fund’s 5.6% investment, as represented by its positions of 1.5% in Charter and 4.1% in Liberty.”

Overall, CHTR ranks 2nd on our list of the best high short interest stocks to buy now. While we acknowledge the growth potential of CHTR, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold great promise for delivering high returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CHTR but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.