Short sellers piled on to Apple again between the November 13 and November 30 settlement dates, lifting its short interest to a year-to-date high. Other than that, changes in the number of shares short in the rest of the most heavily shorted stocks traded on the Nasdaq were relatively mild.
Note that the five most shorted Nasdaq stocks all had more than 100,000 shares short by the end of the month.
After dropping around 9% in the previous period, the short interest in Frontier Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: FTR) recovered about 4% to come in at almost 163.61 million shares by November 30. That was 14.1% of the telecom’s float. The days to cover rose to more than 18 as the average daily volume plunged. Frontier announced service in Durham, N.C. in November, and shares ended the short interest period nearly 5% higher. That compared to a less than 3% gain for the Nasdaq. The share price is down more than 26% year to date. The stock closed Wednesday at $4.92, within a 52-week trading range of $4.19 to $8.46.
The more than 149.13 million Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) shares short at the end of the month was up more than 1% from mid-November. That was 7.3% of the company’s float, as well as about the same level of short interest as a year ago. At the current average daily volume, it would take more than eight days to cover all short positions. Jim Cramer called Sirius a Hold in late November. The share price ended the two-week period barely higher than where it began, though it has climbed a bit more since. Shares ended Wednesday at $4.01, or 19 cents shy of the recent 52-week high. The 52-week low of $3.27 was almost a year ago.
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