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Investing

Short Sellers Make Big Push Into Telecom, Tech

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Short sellers elbowed their way into telecom stocks in the period that ended December 15. The move is probably due to several reasons. Landline subscriber counts continue to drop as more home telephone users turn to VoIP and cellular alternatives. Cellular business margins may be hurt by competition for subscribers. The number of people who have wireless service in the US has peaked. The four large cellular firms must now press for larger pieces of the market. Add to that new competition over which company among them will get early control of the 4G market.

The short interest in AT&T (NYSE: T) rose 15% to 48.8 million. Shares short in Verizon (NYSE: VZ) were up 15% to 49.3 million. The short interest in crippled handset maker Nokia (NYSE: NOK), still the dominant company in the industry worldwide, rose 7% to 71.2 million. Shares short in troubled 4G supplier Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) rose 30% to 31.3 million.

The short interest in most large tech stocks moved higher. Shares short in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) rose 12% to 84.5 million. The short interest in Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) was up 15% to 56 million shares. Shares sold short in Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) rose 13% to 32.9 million. The short interest in Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) was up 17% to 32.7 million.

Among the companies with the largest short interests, the position in Sirius XM Radio (NYSE: SIRI) was flat at 225.7 million. Shares short in Level 3 (NASDAQ: LVLT) were down 10% to 147.4 million. Level 3 has been in a battle with some telecom and cable companies over rates charged for broadband transmission. The short interest in Citigroup (NYSE: C) rose 22% to 367.1 million. Citi’s shares are still in the midst of a recovery. Shares sold short in Ford (NYSE: F) fell 25% to 201.5 million. Ford is viewed as the most successful of the US car companies.

Data from NYSE and NASDAQ

Douglas A. McIntyre

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.

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