Citi screens for most and least crowded stocks poised for big moves
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Citi is out with a screen for "significant downside risk or upside potential" based on crowding.
Citi measures crowding across quants, fundamentals, hedge funds and multi-strat macro funds using five metrics: the most crowded quant factor ranking (region specific), historical relative valuation, short interest, concentration of sell-side analyst ratings and macro risk contribution in individual stocks.

"Conventional thinking is to avoid buying crowded stocks (high crowding composite), as they may become harder to attract marginal investors, while stocks that are less crowded are prone to react more positively to fundamental catalysts, as they can attract a larger set of new investors," Citi says. "However, we do not intend the crowding composite to be a buy/sell signal by itself."
Upside moves - the least crowed U.S. stocks with Buy ratings:


Molson Coors (NYSE:TAP), crowding composite 0.2%
Kellogg (NYSE:K), 1.6%
C.H. Robinson (NASDAQ:CHRW), 1.9%
Telephone and Data Systems (NYSE:TDS), 2.4%
Endo International (NASDAQ:ENDP), 3.7%
General Mills (NYSE:GIS), 4.3%
Discovery (NASDAQ:DISCA), 4.9%
Foot Locker (NYSE:FL), 5%
Beyond Meat (NASDAQ:BYND), 5.3%
TC Energy (NYSE:TRP), 5.6%

Downside moves - most crowded U.S. stocks with Sell or Neutral ratings:

Snap (NYSE:SNAP), crowding composite 99.5%
Blackstone (NYSE:BX), 98.7%
Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS), 98.5%
Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH), 98.1%
Syneos Health (NASDAQ:SYNH), 98%
Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), 97.4%
Nike (NYSE:NKE), 97.3%
Weston Alliance (NYSE:WAL), 97.1%
Microchip Technology (NASDAQ:MCHP), 96.8%
Charles River Labs (NYSE:CRL), 96.5%

See the UBS list of most and least crowded trades.