Short Interest in Apple Ticks Higher

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 10:54AM EST · Published Apr 12, 6:48AM EDT

Short Interest in Apple Ticks Higher — © Thinkstock

Shares sold short in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) rose to 55.5 million in the period that ended March 31, compared to 52.7 million in the period that ended March 15. Apple is the 11th most shorted stock of public corporations traded on the Nasdaq.

Wall Street opinions about Apple are divided into two camps. The first is that the aging iPhone 6 line will sell well between now and the launch of the iPhone 7, presumably this fall. These sales will be bolstered by the new iPhone SE, which is smaller than the iPhone 6, and cheaper, but with a more powerful chip.

The negative case is based on the erosion of the Apple brand because it has launched a mid-priced phone, which in turn erode the brand’s image. And consumers will delay purchase of iPhone 6 models while they wait for the iPhone 7. This assumes the iPhone 7 will be a huge leap forward in features compared to its predecessors. If it is not, Apple shares will nosedive.
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Over the past year, pessimists have driven Apple’s share price down 14%, compared to a 2% drop in the S&P 500. That trend recently has reversed strongly, with shares more than 6% higher, compared to 1% gain in the S&P.

The short interest in Apple shows something of the sentiment about its shares, but so does the recent jump in share price.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.