Alphabet Scares Off More Short Sellers

By Chris Lange Published Jun 26, 8:25AM EDT

Alphabet Scares Off More Short Sellers — © Wikimedia Commons

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL | GOOGL Price Prediction) ranks as one of the largest companies in the world, with a market cap over $1.7 trillion. It is in an elite club with the likes of Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, all with market caps over $1 trillion, and a couple over $2 trillion. However, its short interest hardly compares to most of these big names.

For the most recent settlement date, Apple’s short interest came in at 108.94 million, and 48.14 million Microsoft shares were short. The number of shares short on Amazon was much lower at 4.83 million. Again, Alphabet’s short interest fell below this whole group.

Alphabet’s short interest for the June 15 settlement was 2.70 million shares, down from 2.88 million on the prior settlement date. Note that this also compares with the 3.11 million shares short reported in the same period of last year.

In the past 52 weeks, the stock has outperformed the broad markets, with shares up about 70%. Year to date, the stock is up only 40%.

Alphabet has a daily average volume of 1.11 million shares traded, so it would take short sellers just over two days to cover their positions.

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24/7 Wall St. recently reported on Alphabet:

Cramer was quick to note that the infrastructure deal was totally unexpected and was a great boost for construction-oriented stocks such as United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), and Vulcan Materials Co. (NYSE: VMC). Of course, Cramer took some time to shout out his favorite FAANG stocks: Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL).

Outside of the usual construction picks and perennial tech names, there were a handful of other companies that moved higher with the market. Cramer suggests that the move in Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) on Thursday could signal that growth investing is back. At the same time, the climb of Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI) demonstrates optimism from the American consumer.

Alphabet stock closed Friday’s session at $2,450.17, in a 52-week range of $1,351.65 to $2,461.91. The consensus price target is $2,750.07.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.