Chip Makers’ Markets Drive Shorts (INTC, AMD, QCOM, ARMH, MU, SNDK, BRCM, MRVL, NVDA, TXN, AMAT, SMH)

December 12, 2012 by Paul Ausick

Chip photo
Source: Thinkstock
We have tracked the key short interest changes as of November 30 in the following semiconductor leaders: Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD), Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU), SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH), Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL), Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA), Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) and Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT). We also chose to look at how the Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (NYSEMKT: SMH) has held up.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) short interest rose 10.9% to 220.53 million shares. About 4.4% of Intel’s float is now short.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) saw short interest fall by 4.9% to 144.95 million shares, or 24% of the company’s total float.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) short interest fell 12.9% to 17.65 million shares, which represents 1% of the company’s float.

ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH) saw a 14.3% drop in short interest to 5.69 million shares, which is about 1.2% of the firm’s float.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) showed a rise of 1.8% in short interest, to 56.95 million shares, about 5.7% of Micron’s float.

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) saw short interest drop of 7.1% to 7.8 million shares, or 3.2% of the company’s float.

Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) saw short interest fall by 2.7% to 6.27 million shares, or 1.2% of the total float.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) posted a 12.5% rise in short interest, to 8.1 million shares, about 1.9% of its float.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) short interest rise by 64.6%, to 22.6 million shares or about 3.8% of the company’s float.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) saw short interest rise by 6.2% to 28.46 million shares, which is 2.5% of the company’s float.

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) saw short interest decline by 16.4% to 15.29 million shares, or about 1.2% of the company’s float.

The Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (NYSEMKT: SMH) showed a decline of 18.6% in short interest to 3.19 million shares.

Once again, semiconductor makers with a strong foothold in mobile computing saw a decline in short interest, led by ARM Holdings and Qualcomm. Applied Materials lost favor with the shorts after taking a massive writedown, while both Nvidia and Marvell attracted more short players. Nvidia’s move was tied to a lowered estimate on shipments of Microsoft Corp.’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Surface tablet, while Marvell’s close ties to the hard drive industry are calling out the bears. The softer market for PCs and notebooks also boosted short interest in Intel.

Paul Ausick

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