Short Sellers Switch Allegiances on Chip Stocks

October 10, 2013 by Paul Ausick

Chip photoWe have tracked the key short interest changes as of September 30 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.’s (NASDAQ: INTC) short interest rose 2.1% to 251.54 million shares. About 5.1% of Intel’s float is now short.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) saw short interest fall by 4.6% to 108.7 million shares, or 17.8% of the company’s total float.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) short interest rose 10.1% to 26.44 million shares, which represents 1.5% of the company’s float.

ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH) saw a 7.5% drop in short interest to 8.09 million shares, which represents about 1.7% of the firm’s float.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) showed a drop of 17.6% in short interest, to 92.33 million shares, or about 9% of Micron’s float.

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) saw short interest fall by 9.5% to 20.36 million shares, or 8.5% of the company’s float.

Short interest in Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) rose 9% to 13.7 million shares. That is 2.6% of the total float.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) posted a 13.9% increase in short interest to 13.42 million shares, or about 3.4% of Marvell’s float.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) short interest rose by 4% to 41.9 million shares, about 7.6% of the company’s float.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) saw short interest fall by 6% to 22.5 million shares, or 2.1% of the float.

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) short interest rose 34.7% to 21.2 million shares, which is about 1.8% of the company’s float.

The Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (NYSEMKT: SMH) showed a drop of 6.1% in short interest to 9.27 million shares.

Short interest in Micron fell off a cliff in the latter two weeks of the month. Reports that DRAM prices are rising and demand is improving have given the company a real boost. Applied Materials was the other big short play, mostly following its announced merger with Tokyo Electron. The stock jumped to a 52-week high after the announcement and the shorts loved the play.

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