24/7 Wall St.

As the markets reached all-time highs last month, many short sellers were in retreat, judging by the moves in the most heavily shorted stocks traded on the Nasdaq between the April 15 and April 29 settlement dates. But the most shorted of those stocks, Sirius XM, bucked the trend with a sharp increase in the number of its shares short. Leading the downward trend were rival chip makers AMD and Intel.

Note that the three most shorted Nasdaq stocks still had more than 100 million shares short by the end of the period.

The 185.69 million or so Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) shares short by the end of the month was more than 8% higher than on the previous settlement date and was the highest level of short interest in the past year. Some 10.4% of the company’s float was sold short. At the current average daily volume, it would take four days to cover all short positions. Sirius reported record revenues late in the month. The share price ended the two-week period with a less than 2% gain, though it has down more than 1% at one point. The stock ended Tuesday at $3.98 a share, within a 52-week trading range of $3.29 to $4.20.

For the fifth period in a row, the short interest in Frontier Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: FTR) has dropped, most recently by 9% or so to around 137.70 million shares. That was 11.8% of the telecom’s float, as of the most recent settlement date. The days to cover crept up to nine as the average daily volume slipped. Merrill Lynch still likes Frontier for its dividend. Shares ended the short interest period up less than 3%, while the Nasdaq retreated more than 3% in that time. The share price still is more than 16% higher year to date. The stock closed most recently at $5.43, within a 52-week range of $3.81 to $5.85.

24/7 Wall St.
The 5 Most Shorted NYSE Stocks: Short Sellers Still in Retreat