S&P 500
7,401.00
+0.91%
Dow Jones
49,665.70
+0.19%
Nasdaq 100
29,241.00
+2.43%
Russell 2000
2,860.88
+0.82%
FTSE 100
10,263.70
+0.48%
Nikkei 225
63,767.70
+2.68%

Investing

Shorts Flee Strongest Stocks

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Invalid Image
Stocks with strong balance sheets that are likely to post good earnings have lost their interest for short sellers. Base on data as of June 30, short sellers abandoned the shares of Citigroup NYSE: C), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Ford (NYSE: F), and AT&T (NYSE: T).

The short interest in AT&T fell 18% to 50.3 million shares. Citigroup’s short position fell 13% to 432.8 million, although it continued to have the largest number of shares sold short of any public company. Shares sold short in Exxon Mobil were down 60% to 41.3 million. The short interest in Ford dropped 6% to 275.7 million.

Shares in companies with weak prospect rose.The short interest in Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) was up 16% to 84.8 million. The short interest in Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) was up 18% to 43.2 million Shares short in JC Penney (NYSE: JCP) were up 30% to 24.9 million. The short interest in Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) was up 19% to 25.3. And share short in Vonage (NYSE: VG) rose 145% to 6.4 million.

Short seller were split on tech shares, but mostly by narrow margins. Shares sold short in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) rose 8% to 87.2 million. The short interest in Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) was up 3.4% to 67.1 million. Shares short in Dell Computer rose 11% to 53.8 million.

The short interest in Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) fell 26% to 30.1 million. Shares short in Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) were down 8% to 25.7 million. And shares short in QUALCOMM (NYSE: QCOM) dropped 9% to 22.9 million

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Continue Reading

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Increase Bets Against Apple (AAPL), Citigroup (C)

Short sellers sharply increased their bets against two of America’s most widely followed stocks. Shares sold short in Citigroup (NYSE:C)…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

On Nasdaq Peak Holiday, Shorts Exit Tech And Junk Stocks

On the tenth anniversary of the tech bubble of 2000, short sellers aggressively dropped their bets against hardware, software and…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Up Bet Ahead Of Year-End Market Moves

Short sellers have made a broad range of gambles that many large stocks will lose value before the end of…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Shorts Flee Financials, Attack Industrials And Tech

Short sellers jumped out of major financial shares but piled into the stocks for major industrial firms based on data…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Hope Silicon Valley Gets Mauled

Short sellers are making large bets that tech shares have reached their high point and are likely to sell off…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Increase Bets Against Telecom

Short sellers made bets across the board against the telecom industry for the period that ended January 15. Investors may…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Attack America’s Largest Companies (GE)(PFE)(T)(HAL)(XOM)(INTC)(MSFT)(CSCO)(IBM)

For the latest reported period, ending December 31, short sellers did not make any notable moves in or out of…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Shorts Up Bets Against Healthy Banks And Big Industrials, Move Out Of Tech (AAPL)(C)(GE)(F)(INTC)(MSFT)(YHOO)

If investors had a notion that short sellers were going to stay in big financials, they were wrong. Short interest…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Exit Citi, Feed On Ford

Short-sellers walked away from Citigroup (NYSE: C),dropping their position by 20% in the period that ended May 15.  They could not…

Top Gaining Stocks

Akamai
AKAM • Vol: 21,556,944
Micron Technology
MU • Vol: 65,135,624
Intel
INTC • Vol: 227,504,426
Monster Beverage
MNST • Vol: 15,284,847
Dell Technologies
DELL • Vol: 12,167,525

Top Losing Stocks

Mettler Toledo International
MTD • Vol: 539,266
Motorola Solutions
MSI • Vol: 3,101,643
Expedia
EXPE • Vol: 4,189,786
Coterra Energy
CTRA • Vol: 73,319,495
Fidelity National Information Services
FIS • Vol: 11,468,820