Among firms that had IPOs recently, the short interest in Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) rose 35% to 56.6 million. Shares sold short in Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) rose 19% to 20.7 million. Both companies have been under attack because many investors believe that they cannot sustain sales in a market in which the number of competitors is multiplying quickly.

Among Web 1.0 firms, the short interest in Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) was up 23% to 25.6 million. Although the firm has been able to make progress with its Asian assets, its core portal business is in trouble, and it recently replaced another CEO. Shares short in eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) rose 19% to 16.6 million.

Among other tech stocks, the short interest in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which continues to struggle in the critical mobile industry, rose 25% to 87 million. Shares sold short in badly wounded Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) rose 18% to 53.4 million. The short interest in Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) rose 8% to 35.4 million shares.

Other companies with weak prospects hit by short sellers included Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK); shares sold short rose 27% to 85.2 million. There are questions about the CEO’s practice of investing individually in some of the firm’s drilling projects. Shares short in Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) rose 20% to 116.7 million. The third-largest wireless company continues to lose ground to AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless.

Short interest in major banks also rose as worries about Europe’s finances and new regulations pushed share prices down. Shares sold short in Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) rose 6% to 150.7 million. The short interest in Citigroup (NYSE: C) rose 16% to 35.5 million. Shares sold short in Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) moved higher by 11% to 36 million.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Short sellers have been reported as being able to find some shares to borrow as early as Tuesday, a day or two before the first wave of traditional short sellers were supposed to be able to find stock to borrow.  It generally takes three trading days.  Generally.  In many cases it can take as long as two weeks before short sellers can find any shares.

As an indication that short selling has already begun, Dow Jones has a note this morning that short sellers borrowed about 13 million shares on Tuesday and the source was Sungard.  This is supposedly ahead of having to pay the high cost to borrow.

As far as the rest of the street is concerned, borrowing shares to short sell Facebook is likely to happen throughout the rest of the week and even next week after the options start to trade on Facebook.

Facebook shares are trading up 1.7% at $31.55 this morning ahead of the opening bell.  As a reminder, $38.00 was the IPO price and all those sellers who were hitting the ‘market sell’ orders this week were investors who were allocated shares at the IPO and those investors who chased the stock at a premium after it opened when NASDAQ’s order system was botched.

JON C. OGG

Take a look at any chart and you will see that Best Buy shares hit a low not seen since back in 2009 when every stock tied to retail and technology had hit the ‘free fall’ button.  This stock hit a low of $17.53 this morning and its prior 52-week range was $17.84 to $32.85.

Somehow Amazon remains the winner here.  Many buyers go to Best Buy to interact with consumer electronics and then turn around and buy the item online from a competitor to avoid sales tax and/or to pay a lower price.

Analysts still have a consensus price target around $25.00 for Best Buy, but for now that should not be trusted.  And what about that $3.59 EPS target for this year at Best Buy from Thomson Reuters?  Or the $3.72 EPS target for next year from Thomson Reuters?  If those were to remain true then Best Buy trades at only 5-times this year’s earnings and under 4.9-times next year’s earnings estimates.

The reality is that Best Buy has no CEO, it lost its founder, it is suffering from margin compression, and it is often cited as losing more and more of the potential customer base. BB&T Capital Markets also downgraded Best Buy shares to Hold from Buy just this morning, although admittedly that is just a very late downgrade.

The one thing which may actually act as a slingshot on any news that “lass bad” is that Best Buy has close to 54 million shares in its short interest per the most recent data.  It is hard to get excited that short sellers may drive up the price if the news is not just dismal.

JON C. OGG

Einhorn’s reasons for beating up on Amazon’s stock are not compelling. Wall St. does not need to look beyond the recent results of JCPenney (NYSE: JCP) and other mid-tier retailers, or even big-box retailer Walmart (NYSE: WMT). Online shoppers have found Amazon irresistible. It has run several competitors, particularly Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS), almost out of business.

A victory over competition is not necessarily an outright win. Amazon has to show consumer loyalty and profits to make a final convincing case. The well-regarded Foresee study of e-commerce user customer satisfaction had Amazon on top again. It was even ahead of Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) e-commerce customer satisfaction, and was it far ahead of e-commerce satisfaction for all bricks-and-mortar retailers. The survey was based on a large sample of 21,000 respondents, too.

The other criticism of Amazon concerns its margins. Despite a 34% increase in Amazon’s revenue last quarter to $13.2 billion, net income fell 35% to a tiny $130 million. There are at least two ways to look at the net income figure. One is that Amazon cannot control its costs despite rapid sales growth. The other is that the company has elected to forgo higher margins for now because there is a cost to crush competition. The value of Amazon’s stock indicates a majority of investors believe that the second case is true.

The debate about Amazon’s future reemerges with each new earnings report and product introduction. Despite these questions, Amazon has overcome the rule that sales growth slows as companies get larger. Only a few other companies that have been public for a long time have also been able to demonstrate this. Apple is the first one that comes to mind.

Amazon, despite Einhorn’s protests, has shown almost nothing to shake the opinion that nearly every major decision made by its management has made has been right.

Douglas A. McIntyre

We did witness some analyst upgrades today as both Stern Agee and also Citigroup raised their ratings to Buy from Hold after the earnings.  What may be driving shares the most today is continued short covering.  If you take a look below, you can see the settlement data for the short interest based on each settlement date but keep in mind that Groupon now trades only about 2.62 million shares on an average day:

Date….. Short Int.

4/30/2012  17,427,665

4/13/2012  19,210,861

3/30/2012  23,338,658

3/15/2012  21,675,204

2/29/2012  19,026,896

2/15/2012  18,396,790

1/31/2012  16,920,424

1/13/2012  16,484,330

12/30/2011  17,328,422

12/15/2011  14,796,819

11/30/2011  7,637,404

11/15/2011  2,919,091

If you include the after-hours session from Monday, volume was 16.2 million shares on Monday.  Only one day last week saw more than 2 million shares traded in a day.  If this is not a classic short-covering then nothing else is.

Another issue today is that as of 1:30 PM EST we have already seen some 28,000 call options trade for the May expiration alone and over 10,000 of the June expiration calls trade.  That is the equivalent of another 2.8 million shares and 1 million shares if you convert options contracts as 1 contract per 100 shares on a fully leveraged basis.

What is interesting is the put option volume today.  If you look at the June put options there have been almost 22,000 contracts and in the June expirations we have seen over 20,000 put options trade in the June contracts.

Groupon shares are currently up 11.5% at $13.09 and the post-IPO range is $9.63 to $31.14.  Groupon was a $9.90 stock at the close of trading on Friday.

JON C. OGG

Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI) saw a gain of 18.7% in short interest as of for the two weeks ended April 30th. More than 6.6 million shares were added to short interest and 20% of the company’s float is now short. The coal miner’s poor earnings and forecast are to blame.

Short interest in Exco Resources Inc. (NYSE: XCO) rose nearly 12% to more than 33.5 million shares, or 19.3% of the company’s float. The oil & gas driller missed revenue expectations, although it did post a profit. Revenue is more important now however.

Among the largest overall short positions, SandRidge Energy Co. (NYSE: SD) got short interest on 49.5 million shares, nearly 12% of its float and up 6.7% from the previous reporting period. Shares are down more than -33% in the past 12 months, and the small spikes don’t affect short sellers here. The long-term outlook for natural gas continues to call for weak pricing.

E&P company Forest Oil Co. (NYSE: FST) was another recipient of more short interest in late April. Short sellers added about 3 million shares, a 24.7% increase and enough to put nearly 13% of the company’s float short.

Even Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) didn’t escape. Short sellers added 7.7 million shares to their positions, a 31.8% change to 32 million shares, but still less than 1% of Exxon’s shorts.

The final energy company we’ll look at here is Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK), where 5.8 million additional shares were added to short positions, bringing total shorts to just over 79 million shares. That’s an addition of 8% and represents 5.9% of Duke’s float. It’s odd to see a utility on this list.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD)saw short interest in its share rise by 6.5% to more than 70 million shares or 11.9% of the company’s float. AMD continues to suffer from lower-than-expected earnings and revenues.

Short interest in Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) jumped 265% to more 13.4 million shares. While still only about 0.5% of the company’s float, but generic drug sales are hurting the company as is a weak economy in Europe. Neither condition is expected to improve soon either.

Short interest in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) also rose sharply, buy 21.4% to reach a total of 63.6 million shares, about 0.8% of the company’s float. Like Sanofi, competition from generics hurts. The company also said it will reduce marketing expenditures on its Lipitor drug.

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) gets the honor for being the equity with the largest number of short shares, 195 million, which represents 5.2% of the company’s float. The good news is that short interest fell by more than 32 million shares, also the largest change.

More than 75% of Barnes & Noble Inc.’s (NYSE: BKS) float is short, about 19.8 million shares. Short interest in the company grew by just 700,000 shares since mid-April.

Short interest holds more than 42% of grocer SuperValue Inc.’s (NYSE: SVU) shares with a total of 88.5 million shares short, up slightly from two weeks ago.

Short interest in Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI) actually fell slightly , but the company’s total of 50.5 million shares short represents 25.3% of the float and 22 days to cover.

Short interest in for-profit educator DeVry Inc. (NYSE: DV) jumped 123.2% to 3.7 million shares or 6.3% of the company’s float. Another education company, Bridgepoint Education Inc. (NYSE: BPI) posts short interest of more than 9.7 million shares, or 56% of its float.

Paul Ausick

24/7 Wall St. screened out selective short interest data with the latest changes from the settlement date of April 30, 2012 versus the prior April 13, 2012 in shares of the following: Alcatel Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU); Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: STD); Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC); Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS); Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN); Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND); First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR); Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR); Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN); Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI); LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD); Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX); RadioShack Corporation (NYSE: RSH); Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM); and Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI).   Does this make for a “Short-Sell in May and go away!” theme?  The short interest changes are for the April 13 versus March 30 settlement dates, with selective color added if applicable:   Alcatel Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU) saw another rise in the short interest but this gain was massive by over 25% to 28.67 million shares in the short interest.  Based on its earnings botch, the short sellers made some real money here.

Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: STD) is not one of our usual short interest names but investors are back to betting against Spain and the PIIGS all over again now that austerity measures are being fought publicly.  The prior gain was a whopping 214% gain in the short interest to 55.7 million shares and the newest gain was only 2.5% to 57.1 million shares.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is back to seeing a rise in the short interest after a prior drop.  Short sellers lifted the short interest by 9.9% to 142.3 million shares.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) saw a small increase ion its short interest, which you know helped to exacerbate that pop from the Microsoft deal while activist investors press on here.  The short interest rose another 3.7% to 19.768 million shares.

According to data from the NYSE and Nasdaq, for the period that ended April 30, shares sold short in Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) rose 132% t0 139.3 million. The wireless company’s prospects have been burned by the success of AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ). And Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse agreed to reset his compensation for last year because of shareholder objections about its size.

Shares sold short in Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) rose 28% to 67.2 million. The value of the stock is down by nearly half because of a scandal that has engulfed CEO Aubrey McClendon and his board. McClendon has been taking investments in wells drilled by the company.

Shares short in Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) were higher by 31% to 38.8 million as worries that new CEO Meg Whitman will not be able to repair the firm’s operations soon.

The short interest in Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) rose 25% to 28.7 million. The telecom equipment maker has posted a string of losses as the demand from its cable and telephone corporate clients has fallen.

Shares short in Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) were up 17% to 50.5 million. The company just posted an earnings forecast that drove its shares down on extraordinary volume.

The short interest in new IPO Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) was up 51% to 42 million. The market has started to doubt whether the company’s products are unique enough for its to fend off competition.

Douglas A. McIntyre

24/7 Wall St. has pulled some selective short interest data with the latest changes from the settlement date of April 13, 2012, versus the prior March 30, 2012, in shares of the following: Alcatel Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU); Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: STD); Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC); Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS); Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN); Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND); First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR); Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR); Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN); Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI); LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD); Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX); Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK); RadioShack Corporation (NYSE: RSH); Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM); and Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI).

The short interest changes are for the April 13 versus March 30 settlement dates, with selective color added if applicable:

Alcatel Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU) saw another rise in the short interest by 7.3% to 22,899,245 shares after a 4% rise the following period.

Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: STD) is not one of our usual short interest names but investors have really been betting against the PIIGS again and the banks in those nations. A 214% gain in the short interest to 55.7 million shares should catch almost anyone’s attention!

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) saw a larger drop this period of 8.3% in the short interest to 129,449,602 shares after seeing a 1.4% drop he period before.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) remains extremely elevated in its short interest as the activists increase their stake, and this rally may have been in part due to short covering. The April 13 settlement date grew by 8.2% to 19.06 million shares in the short interest.

Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) just erased the previous drop in the short interest as the short interest rose at the April 13 settlement date to 35,936,945 shares. This is still a high short interest if you are looking backwards.

Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND) is still a battleground stock but its short interest may be peaking as the rise as of the April 13 settlement date was only up by 1.4% to 11,464,107 shares.

First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) recently hit an all-time low and that was even after the April 13 settlement date. The short interest rose again by 13.5% to just over 23.06 million shares.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) saw a 9.9% gain in the short interest as of the April 13 settlement date to 28,015,423 shares, and that was after a 1.8% to 25.49 million shares in the prior period. This is higher than earlier in the year but well down from last year’s more active short selling.

Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) saw a large drop in the short selling as of the April 13 settlement date with a drop of 17.7% to 19.21 million shares.

Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI) merely reversed its prior drop of almost 5% as the April 13 settlement date showed a gain of 4.8% in the short interest to 46.31 million shares.

LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) hardly budged as the short interest grew only 2% to 4,380,996 as of the April 13 settlement date. This short interest is still down about one-third from earlier in the year.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is back in the interest of short sellers, likely a move ahead of earnings (or losses). The April 13 settlement date saw a gain of 10.4% to 10.16 million shares in the short interest.

Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) short sellers apparently missed out on yet more money to be made betting against this stock’s future. The short interest fell by 1.8% as of the April 13 settlement date but this remains elevated at 227.27 million shares listed in the short interest.

RadioShack Corporation (NYSE: RSH) is one where the short sellers have been winning and one where the short interest has been growing. The April 13 settlement date showed a 9% gain to 35,850,537 shares in the short interest and that is after an 11% rise in the short interest the period before. The bets continue against the company here.

Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) may be down and out, but the April 13 settlement date saw another small drop. The drop this time was only 0.9% in the short interest to 56.75 million shares, and that is on the heels of a 5% drop seen in the prior period. This short interest was more than 60 million shares short as of mid-March.

Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) was down only slightly with a 0.9% drop to 285 million shares on the heels of a 6% drop in its prior short interest. What is interesting is that the Liberty/Malone news was starting to come out after this last April 13 settlement date. Keep in mind that this is down from a peak of more than 300 million shares short in mid-March.

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JON C. OGG

24/7 Wall St. has tracked the short selling activity in shares of the following: Alcatel Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU); Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC); Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN); Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND); First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR); Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR); Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI); LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD); Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX); RadioShack Corporation (NYSE: RSH); Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM); and Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI).

The short interest changes are for the March 30 versus March 15 settlement dates:

Alcatel Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU) short selling rose almost 4% to 21.33 million shares.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) showed a mere 1.4% drop despite its shares having doubled from the lows of December and the new reading was 141.1 million shares in the short interest.

Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) saw a drop of about 4.1% to 34.03 million shares in the short interest.  This is high historically.

Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND) is still a battleground stock and its short interest is compressing.  The March 30 short interest was down 6.6% at 11.3 million shares.  This marks a continued lower trend.

First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) continued to get pounded but short sellers lightened up into the end of March.  Maybe they thought all the easy money had been made.  Its short interest fell4.3% to 20.3 million shares, but that was higher than some recent reports earlier this year.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) saw only a small rise of 1.8% to 25.49 million shares in the short interest and this is still higher than earlier in the year but well down from last year’s more active short selling.

Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI) saw a drop of almost 5% as sellers may have locked in gains.  The drop was down to 44.18 million shares in the short interest.

LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) saw a decent drop of about 7.1% in the short interest at the March 30 settlement date to 4.29 million shares short.  This short interest is down about one-third from earlier in the year.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) saw a rather large short interest drop of over 15% to just over 9.2 million shares and this is down under the recent trends.

RadioShack Corporation (NYSE: RSH) posted a rather large gain in the short selling bets by 11% up to 32,881,316 shares in the short interest.  The bets continue against the company here.

Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) saw a 5% drop in its short interest to 57.28 million shares in the short interest after seeing rise after rise to more than 60 million shares short by mid-March.

Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) saw a drop of 6.6% to 287.5 million shares short, but that was down from a peak of more than 300 million shares short in mid-March.

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