Short Interest Rises in Chip Stocks as Industry Looks Set to Recover (INTC, AMD, QCOM, ARMH, MU, SNDK, BRCM, MRVL, NVDA, TXN, AMAT, SMH)
February 28, 2013 by Paul Ausick
We have tracked the key short interest changes as of February 15 in the following semiconductor leaders: Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD), Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU), SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH), Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL), Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA), Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) and Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT). We also chose to look at how the Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (NYSEMKT: SMH) has held up.
Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) short interest rose 5.7% to 208.2 million shares. About 4.2% of Intel’s float is now short.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) saw short interest drop by 3.9% to 86.42 million shares, 14.3% of the company’s total float.
Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) short interest rose 19.4% to 15.17 million shares, which represents 0.9% of the company’s float.
ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH) saw a 22.8% rise in short interest to 6.6 million shares, or about 1.4% of the firm’s float.
Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) showed a rise of 16.5% in short interest, to 66.13 million shares, about 6.5% of Micron’s float.
SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) saw short interest decline by 7.1% to 6.7 million shares, or 2.8% of the company’s float.
Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) saw short interest rise by 1.7% to 6.39 million shares, or 1.2% of the total float.
Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) posted an 11.1% rise in short interest, to 7.02 million shares, about 1.6% of Marvell’s float.
Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) short interest rise by 14.4%, to 19.07 million shares or about 3.2% of the company’s float.
Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) saw short interest rise by 17.3% to 26.85 million shares or 2.4% of the company’s float.
Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) saw short interest rise by 26.6% to 21.18 million shares or about 1.8% of the company’s float.
The Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (NYSEMKT: SMH) showed a rise of 12.6% in short interest to 5.56 million shares.
AMD continues to lead the chipmaking stocks in short interest, even though shorts have fallen for the past month. The sharp rise at ARM is likely due to the stock’s being fully valued. Applied Materials beat estimates for its quarterly results, and the jump in short interest is likely a combination of short covering and a belief that any recovery in chip stocks is only temporary.
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