Avis Budget shares jump to 8-month high

Avis Budget

06/04/2026 15:59

** 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

 (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar)

 ((sruthi.shankar@thomsonreuters.com;))