Avis Budget shares jump to 8-month high

Shares of car rental company Avis Budget CAR.O rise 3.7% to $197.53 - highest since July 2025

Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Woronka downgrades stock to "hold" from "buy," saying he struggles to justify the current share price using traditional metrics and a 12-month time horizon

However, Chris says the downgrade is not a call to sell the stock and points to "material risk of further upside" from a short squeeze

CAR had a short interest of ~23% as of April 6, as per LSEG data

DB says the short squeeze can be traced back to share acquisition by activist investor Pentwater Capital Management over the past two months, CAR is up 91% since a Pentwater filing on March 20, compared with +1% for the SPX

Penwater has a 20.33% stake in the company, LSEG data

DB also points to some positive momentum in the core business and co's potential to capitalize on opportunity in the autonomous vehicle/robotaxi space

Stock up ~54% YTD