24/7 Wall St. » MCRL

Major March Short Interest Increases (CSCO, LOGI, MCRL, PRXL, PTEN, SPLS, JAVA, TROW, YRCW)

247wallst — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:57:03 +0000

We routinely look over major changes in short interest from period to period. While the more frequent twice-monthly reporting is conducted by exchanges, it sometimes gives a little insight into the psyche of traders and trends. The most important issue to look at is in the larger and more active names that have large positions that grew rapidly in percentage terms.

We screened many different names after the short interest data came out last night from NASDAQ, so we looked for a minimum of 5 million shares short and we looked for those names whose short interest grew by more than 30%. These are not all of the names, but here is a representation of the screen:

Comapny (Ticker)                            MARCH 14    FEB 29    CHANGE
Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO)       73,069,889 48,631,811 50.25%
Logitech International (LOGI)          8,017,620 5,464,404    46.72%
Micrel, Incorporated (MCRL)          7,719,618 5,242,192    47.26%
PAREXEL International (PRXL)       6,204,152 3,137,862    97.72%
Patterson-UTI Energy (PTEN)       14,068,305 9,336,158 50.69%
Staples, Inc. (SPLS)                         20,708,717 15,097,693 37.16%
Sun Microsystems (JAVA)             23,630,955 17,562,322 34.55%
T. Rowe Price Group (TROW)       15,997,024 11,341,287 41.05%
YRC Worldwide, Inc. (YRCW)       22,782,135 16,007,172 42.32%

Jon C. Ogg
March 27, 2008

Jon Ogg produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

52-Week Low Club: Transport, Semiconductors & Financials (January 2, 2008)

247wallst — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:23:11 +0000

Truckers led the drop after a fake $100 oil print and after a YRC Worldwide (NASDAQ: YRCW) acquisition write-down, pulling down Arkansas Best (NASDAQ: ABFS) and others. With no surprise, airlines followed suit with Airtrain (AAI), AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), Continental Airlines (NYSE:CAL), Delta (NYSE: DAL), FedEx (FDX), Jetblue (NASDAQ:JBLU), Mesa Air (NASDAQ: MESA), Northwest Air (NYSE: NWA), Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV), US Air (NYSE: LCC).

Chip and tech stocks on 52-week lows: AMAT, AMD, ADTN, ARRS, ATML, BBND, CHRT, FCS, FEIC, IDTI, IM, KLAC, KLIC, LRCX, LSCC, LSI, MCRL, MRVL, MU, NSM, STM, TER, XLNX

Financial Giants on 52-Week lows: BAC, BBT, BSC, CYN, DFG, EFX, FIC, FITB, FHN, MCO, NCC, PNSN, SNV, SBP, WFC, ZION.

We kept the REIT’s and the usual suspects in retail off the list that have been here day in and day out (although many hit new 52-week lows). Here is the huge list of others 52-week lows:

Automatic Data (ADP), Cardinal Health (CAH), Career Education (CECO), Diebold (NYSE: DBD), EchoStar (DISH), Superior Offshore (DEEP), Dow Chemical (DOW), Eastman Kodak (EK), Emmis (EMMS), Ford (F), Fortune Brands (FO), General Motors (GM), Hasbro (HAS), Helen of Troy (HELE), Interpublic (IPG), Mattel (MAT), McClatchy (MNI), Media General (MEG), Nortel Networks (NT), Owens Corning (OC), Paychex (OPAYX), PHH Corp. (PHH), Playboy (PLA), Radio Shack (RSH), Rite Aid (RAD), Sherwin Williams (SHW), Sprint Nextel (S), Starbucks (SBUX), Starwood Hotels (HOT), Sun Microsystems (JAVA), Symantec (SYMC), Travelzoo (TZOO), VF Corp (VFC), Warner Music Group (WMG), Waste Management (WMI), Weight Watchers (WTW), Wendy’s (WEN)

Imagine how large this list would have been if retailers and REIT’s were included.
Jon C. Ogg
January 2, 2008

The 52-Week Low Club

247wallst — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:01:23 +0000

Bankatlantic (BBX) Real estate loans lead to loss. Falls to $4.05 from 52-week high of $14.

Moneygram (MGI) Two recent analyst downgrades. Drops to $14.42 from 52-week high of $35.18.

Journal Register (JRC) Newspaper stocks still getting pushed down. Drops to $2.23 from 52-week high of $8.60.

Trident Microsystems (TRID) Bad quarter. Shares down to $6.80 from 52-week high of $23.59.

Micrel (MCRL) Wall St. unhappy about earnings. Falls to $8.61 from 52-week high of $13.98.

Douglas A. McIntyre