Small cap retailer Camping World Holdings (NYSE: CWH) is the third most shorted stock on the NYSE with short interest of 43.65% and shares are now at a key support level on the charts.

Small cap retailer Camping World Holdings (NYSE: CWH) is the third most shorted stock on the NYSE with short interest of 43.65% according to Highshortinterest.com and shares are now at a key support level on the charts:

Small cap Camping World Holdings is a leading outdoor and camping retailer, offering an extensive assortment of recreational vehicles for sale, RV and camping gear, RV maintenance and repair, other outdoor and active sports products, and the industry’s “broadest and deepest range” of services, protection plans, products and resources. Since the Company’s founding in 1966, Camping World Holdings has grown to become one of the most well-known destinations for everything RV – with more than 145 RV centric locations in 36 states and a comprehensive e-commerce platform. Industry-leading brands would include Gander Outdoors, Good Sam, Overton’s, The House and Windward/W82. The Company went public at $22 around two years ago to more than double by the end of 2017; but shares are now below the IPO price.

In June, shares of Camping World Holdings bottomed and made some recovery moves after CEO Marcus Lemonis went on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money show (Note: Lemonis is also the star of CNBC’s The Profit) to admit that he “made some rookie mistakes” as the CEO of a public company when it comes to communicating to the public about strategy. For example, he commented:

“I think what happened was people originally thought that we bought Gander Mountain to get into the big-box retail business… [That’s] false. We disclosed today at the Baird Conference, in a public environment, our real strategy behind the acquisition of Gander. It was our backdoor entry into the market in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas, where we’re going to be putting RVs in most of those locations.”

In addition, Lemonis explained that the majority of Camping World Holdings’ business comes from an online database called the Good Sam Club:

“That’s really how we make our money. We acquire new customers and we find new people through the sale of RVs and the other products. And I think that’s different than people thought it was.”

The Good Sam Club also surpassed the Two Million Member mark in September. The Club was founded in 1966 and has been providing support and assistance as well as opportunities for savings, fun, fellowship and volunteering among RVing and outdoor families nationwide for more than 50 years.

Another headwind for Camping World Holdings has been gas prices which continue to rise and are impacting RV makers as well. However, Lemonis says that while gas prices may eat into the number of trips that RV owners take, they don’t seem to be a deterrent in the actual decision to purchase an RV in the first place.

Meanwhile and back in May when the Company reported first quarter earnings, the CEO had commented:

“While the unseasonably cold weather throughout a good portion of the country has likely impacted the early part of the peak selling season, we believe the backdrop across the RV industry remains strong and we continue to plan our business around a mid-single digit increase in same store sales in 2018.”

In August when the Company reported second quarter earnings, the CEO stated:

“Our RV business is on pace for another record year. While the early part of the RV selling season was impacted by unseasonal weather, we saw nice improvements as the second quarter progressed and our team did an excellent job of balancing our promotional activity to maintain strong profitability while driving sales growth and dramatically lowering our inventory levels of new RVs. We continue to invest in the growth of RV dealerships through traditional RV acquisitions, new store openings, and the launch of Gander RV Sales which will transform our recently acquired Gander Outdoors’ locations through the integration of RV sales and service. The launch of Gander RV Sales has provided the opportunity to rapidly expand our RV business in key states like Wisconsin, Minnesota, Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, and Illinois, which represent nine of the top 16 RV states, according to Statistical Survey, Inc.’s new RV registration data, and accounted for nearly 35% of all RV registrations over the past twelve months.”

If Camping World Holdings’ CEO avoids any more “rookie mistakes” and other things break in the Company’s favor (e.g. gas prices peak and fall back etc), shares could be due for a short-squeeze.