Very Unusual Short Interest Trends (ALU, BAC, DNDN, DMND, FSLR, GMCR, HGSI, LNKD, NFLX, RIMM, SIRI)

Cult stocks and controversial stocks often have an unusually high short interest.  What is amazing is that the bets against these companies sometimes go off the charts and we see some very large moves in the February 15 settlement date from the prior settlement date of January 31.  We have tracked unusual short selling activity in shares of the following: Alcatel Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU); Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC); Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN); Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND); First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR); Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR); Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI); LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD); Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX); Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM); and Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI).

We covered the short interest changes for the January 13 settlement date and compared them to the December 30 short interest data and added in other color if applicable.

Alcatel Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU) fell 1.5% to 12.707 million shares.  Not bad considering the stock pop.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) posted a slight rise of 4.3% to its short interest to 154.4 million.  After the gain from the start of the year it doesn’t seem unusual that the bank would get more short sellers.

Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) saw only a 0.3% drop, but the level remains high at 32.3 million shares in the short interest.

Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND) saw a huge gain of 22% to 12.97 million shares as its accounting woes are escalating further.

First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) was a rather large drop, which interesting considering the price action.  The short interest fell 17% to 13.68 million shares and that appears to be the lowest short interest for a year.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) saw a drop of only 2.2% to 22.495 million shares in the short interest and that is the lowest reading since last October.

Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI) was effectively unchanged with a drop of only 0.79% to 36.22 million shares in the short interest.

LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) saw a small drop of 5.7% to 6.76 million shares.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) saw a tiny drop of 1.1% to 10.72 million shares in the short interest.  This still remains above average.

Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) saw a surge in the short interest of 16.6% to 55.9 million shares short.  Keep in mind that this was on top of a 31% gain in the prior period. This is the highest short interest in a year.

Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) saw a 10.4% drop in the short interest down to 273 million shares and this was the lowest reading in about 3 months.

JON C. OGG