FirstFed Financial Corp., the parent of First Federal Bank of California, surged as much as 39 percent on Thursday after an analyst said short interest in the company exceeded the number of publicly traded shares.

Short interest for Los Angeles-based FirstFed has climbed to 12.6 million shares, or 108 percent of the 11.7 million shares available for trading, according to Bloomberg data.

“We question whether or not this level of shares has actually been borrowed and sold short under stock exchange rules,” said Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Frederick Cannon in a note to investors The short positions may prompt a review by the stock exchange or by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Cannon said.

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