Among the most shorted stocks trading on the New York Stock Exchange, General Electric saw its short interest drop sharply between the November 13 and November 30 settlement dates, but not enough for it to slip from the top of the list. Short sellers added to their positions in the rest of the top six, especially SunEdison.
Note that the six most shorted NYSE stocks all had more than 115,000 shares short at the end of the most recent settlement period.
After surging in the previous two periods, the short interest in General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) dropped between the most recent settlement dates, more than 36% to more than 251.43 million shares. Fewer than 100 million shares were short for most of the past year, but it was up to 2.5% of the float by November 30. It would take about two days to cover all short positions. GE was expected to hike its dividend soon–maybe. The share price rose almost 3% but then surrendered that gain during the two-week period. Shares closed at $30.47 Wednesday, down about half a buck from the recent 52-week high. The $19.37 52-week low happened during the market swoon back in August.
Short interest in Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) also surged in the previous period, and it gained another 3.5% in late November to about 236.22 million. That was 36.0% of the company’s float, and the days to cover remained about 14 as the daily average volume hit a three-month high. In the period, Chesapeake saw some insider buying. Short sellers watched the stock fall almost 16% between the settlement dates, while the S&P 500 was up about 2%. Shares closed at $4.47 on Wednesday, after hitting a multiyear low of $4.03 the day before. The 52-week high of $21.49 was seen last February.
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