Short Interest in Chip Makers Changes Course (INTC, AMD, QCOM, ARMH, MU, SNDK, BRCM, MRVL, NVDA, TXN, AMAT, SMH)
ThinkstockWe have tracked the key short interest changes as of January 15 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),…
We have tracked the key short interest changes as of January 15 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 fell 4.5% to 205.5 million shares. About 4.2% of Intel’s float is now short.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) saw short interest rise by 1.7% to 101.23 million shares, 16.8% of the company’s total float.
Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) short interest rose 6.9% to 14.47 million shares, which represents 0.9% of the company’s float.
ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH) saw a 13.9% rise in short interest to 4.54 million shares. That represents about 1% of the firm’s float.
Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) showed a rise of 8.6% in short interest, to 54.27 million shares, about 5.4% of Micron’s float.
SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) saw short interest rise of 16.3% to 7.07 million shares, or 2.9% of the company’s float.
Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) short interest rose 4.9% to 6.45 million shares, or 1.3% of the total float.
Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) posted a 3.7% rise in short interest, to 6.42 million shares, about 1.5% of Marvell’s float.
Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) short interest rise by 7.8% to 22.09 million shares. or about 3.7% of the company’s float.
Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) saw short interest fall by 6.4% to 20.17 million shares, or 1.8% of the company’s float.
Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) short interest declined by 3.5% to 11.95 million shares, or about 1% of the company’s float.
The Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (NYSEMKT: SMH) showed a rise of 58.6% in short interest to 4.04 million shares.
Short interest had piled up in companies like Intel and AMD that have either a small or no presence in the mobile market. That trend has stopped, and even reversed somewhat, as well-established mobile players like SanDisk, Qualcomm and Broadcom experienced increases in short interest in early January. The huge short interest jump in the Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF came late, it appears. It is too early to call this a major shift, but it is surely a significant one.
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Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.
