Are Short Sellers Making the Right Bet on Apple?
Apple watched its short interest rise from a year-to-date low in the period ended on July 31. Meanwhile, Apple’s stock has risen 7% in the past month, hitting a new all-time high.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) watched its short interest rise from a year-to-date low in the period ended on July 31. Meanwhile, Apple’s stock has risen 7% in the past month, hitting a new all-time high. Although the iPhone giant is building momentum toward the $1 trillion market cap, it seems to be attracting more attention from short sellers looking for a pullback.
For the period ended July 31, Apple saw its short interest increase to 40.31 million from the previous level of 39.15 million. This is an increase of about 3%.
There has been a great deal of discussion about how Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) or Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) might pass Apple in terms of market capitalization. Apple has held the top spot for years and sits at $815 billion.
Recently, worries about the iPhone 8 and optimism about Amazon’s share of e-commerce made it appear the Jeff Bezos–led company could catch Apple. Alphabet’s Google search dominance and the growth of divisions like YouTube might have given it a chance to make a run at Apple.
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Compared to Apple’s market cap of $815 billion, Amazon’s is $474 billion and Alphabet’s is $649 billion. Apple’s shares would have to plunge, or the shares of the others would have to make unprecedented surges, for either to catch the consumer electronics giant. In a sense, the short sellers would win big if this was the case.
Excluding Thursday’s move, Apple is the second-best-performing Dow stock, with shares up just over 36% year to date. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock is up closer to 45%.
Shares of Apple were last seen down 1.2% at $158.44 on Thursday, with a consensus analyst price target of $167.98 and a 52-week range of $102.53 to $161.83.
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Chris Lange is a financial and geopolitical writer with more than a decade of experience covering a myriad of topics. He has published thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St., with past coverage focused heavily on stocks, IPOs, healthcare, defense, global affairs, and technology.
His work has been quoted, or referenced by a number of outlets including Business Insider, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, The Motley Fool, and many other publications. A graduate of Southwestern University, he studied business with a focus on investments and has previous experience in banking and startups.
When not reading or writing the news, he is following his passion for Lacrosse, playing chess, or building solar projects with his dad.
