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Many traders and short sellers have loved targeting solar power and other alternative energy stocks. Interestingly, bets against these companies have not risen dramatically even though many of them are under pressure from falling energy and commodities prices. As you will see below, there was only one company with a significant rise in short interest.
As you will see below, there were many key changes to short sales in oil stocks. Some of these would have been expected to have gone up because oil was so weak. But there were many surprising gains as well. Here are the mid-September short sale numbers:
COMPANY (TICKER) Sep 15 Aug 29 Change
Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) 6,133,690 6,061,556 1.19%
Chevron Corporation (CVX) 22,795,662 20,202,281 12.84%
Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) 31,416,108 29,473,462 6.59%
Hess Corporation (HES) 4,447,432 4,382,553 1.48%
Marathon Oil Corporation (MRO) 7,261,748 5,969,911 21.64%
Schlumberger N.V. (SLB) 14,953,601 13,375,004 11.80%
COMPANY (TICKER) Sep 15 Aug 29 Change
Halliburton Company (HAL) 30,099,107 38,571,133 -21.96%
National Oilwell Varco (NOV) 7,514,971 7,778,930 -3.39%
Transocean Inc (RIG) 13,948,428 14,367,494 -2.92%
Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) 14,846,937 15,028,560 -1.21%
Jon C. Ogg
September 25, 2008
The cut-off for the last short interest data was September 15, before a number of financial stocks got protection from the SEC. Before the ban, short sellers were already moving out of some bank and brokerage shares. Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE), Citigroup (C), and Bank of America (BAC) all had big drops in total shares sold short. The only large spike up in the group was Washington Mutual where the short interest spiked 12% to 429 million shares.
Short sellers moved their money elsewhere with the primary target being technology shares.
Frankly, we think the ban on short sales is not the right way to run a free market. But it doesn't matter what we think. These are the new rules, but they do not always make sense. Consider the stocks listed below that have many of the same issues as the financial companies but did not make the SEC's list.
Continue reading "Companies Not On SEC Short Sale Ban, But Should Be" »
There was a perverse honor in being a short-seller. It was an honor among thieves, but the group usually made lots of money by taking significant risks.
Short-selling was based on one of the foundations of capitalism. Making money betting on disaster is just as much a part of the economy as taking the optimist's side.
Banning short-selling in financial stocks, which both the US and UK have done, will halt the activities of the so-called naked shorters. These firms short shares without borrowing them from other firms. They are required to do that borrowing because it is the basis of their risk. If the stock they borrowed goes up, they have to pay the difference of what the original owner would have made.
Continue reading "The Socialists Killed The Short Sellers" »
There are two compelling arguments against suspending short selling completely, even if it is for only a brief period. The first is that a free market allows investors to make money by betting that stocks will go down. Why should the bulls be allowed to make all of the profits unchecked by those willing to take the other side of the gamble?
The second argument is that a hiatus on short selling could cost shorts billions of dollars as investors see stocks rise after putting good money into the proposition that they will fall.
The government has not had a problem with ending or temporarily amending a number of rules in the hope that it can save the financial system.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced new measures this morning to curb naked short sales. The rules impose a firm close-out requirement on short sellers and their brokers. Parties must now deliver securities borrowed for short sales on the trade settlement date, which is three days after the transaction date. Supposedly, penalties will be imposed if the parties do not comply. The interim final rule will take effect as of 12:01 a.m. EDT on Thursday.
With the trends seen lately in communications equipment and data providers because of telecom spending dropping, it is no huge surprise that the short selling has been increasing in some of the stocks in the sector. Some companies showed declines in short selling, but these are some of the larger companies that showed increases in short sales from mid-August to late in August:
Alternative Energy Aug 29 Aug 15 Change
Ciena Corp. (CIEN) 10,613,944 10,213,947 3.92%
Cisco Systems (CSCO) 61,385,846 60,078,726 2.18%
Level 3 Communications (LVLT) 249,148,929 247,414,113 0.70%
JDS Uniphase Corp. (JDSU) 24,646,634 22,891,958 7.67%
Juniper Networks (JNPR) 29,631,812 26,574,049 11.51%
Jon C. Ogg
September 11, 2008
Many traders and short sellers have loved targeting solar power and other alternative energy stocks. What is interesting is that the bets against these companies did not show a larger increase since many of them have been under pressure from falling energy and commodities prices..
Alternative Energy Aug 29 Aug 15 Change
Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ) 4,792,383 4,105,862 16.72%
Capstone Turbine Corp. (CPST) 26,868,541 27,148,261 -1.03%
Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (CLNE) 3,157,778 3,370,936 -6.32%
Evergreen Solar, Inc. (ESLR) 29,577,222 28,600,712 3.41%
First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) 4,118,065 3,932,851 4.71%
Fuel Tech, Inc. (FTEK) 8,967,558 9,409,720 -4.70%
FuelCell Energy (FCEL) 13,231,020 13,547,382 -2.34%
Hoku Scientific (HOKU) 3,408,545 3,264,070 4.43%
LDK Solar Co. Inc. (LDK) 12,810,785 14,263,002 -10.18%
SunPower Corporation (SPWR) 18,696,656 18,939,191 -1.28%
Jon C. Ogg
September 11, 2008
There was a very mixed bag in short selling in the semiconductor sector. What was interesting was the huge increase in the bets against NVIDIA because it was so far after the drop. Most semiconductor short interest changes were single digit changes, but there were some like Intel (INTC), Broadcom (BRCM), and Marvell (MRVL) which saw double-digit declines in the short selling.
Semiconductors Aug 29 Aug 15 Change
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) 96,448,009 93,448,833 3.21%
Altera Corporation (ALTR) 24,489,350 27,131,688 -9.74%
Applied Materials (AMAT) 35,667,917 38,882,398 -8.27%
Broadcom Corporation (BRCM) 18,665,240 21,124,120 -11.64%
Intel Corporation (INTC) 68,683,066 82,558,529 -16.81%
Marvell Technology (MRVL) 27,344,321 34,936,078 -21.73%
NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) 47,152,516 22,476,738 109.78%
ON Semiconductor (ONNN) 45,366,451 46,383,159 -2.19%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) 28,468,030 27,539,572 3.37%
RF Micro Devices (RFMD) 25,883,073 26,620,564 -2.77%
SanDisk Corporation (SNDK) 28,764,413 27,813,854 3.42%
Texas Instruments (TXN) 24,653,691 26,440,098 -6.76%
Jon C. Ogg
September 11, 2008
Unfortunately there is no real clear trend in the Internet sector stocks in the short selling from mid-August to late August as you will see below.
Internet Aug 29 Aug 15 Change
Amazon.com (AMZN) 27,684,633 28,183,474 -1.77%
eBay Inc. (EBAY) 34,620,483 33,432,230 3.55%
Google Inc. (GOOG) 5,802,455 5,565,930 4.25%
United Online (UNTD) 9,459,533 11,923,542 -20.67%
ValueClick (VCLK) 10,404,439 11,421,716 -8.91%
Yahoo! (YHOO) 41,153,923 37,879,991 8.64%
Jon C. Ogg
September 11, 2008
Short sellers believe that they have seen the bottom for financial shares and exited the industry en masse.
Shares sold short in Merrill Lynch (MER) fell 12.6 million to 42.3 million. Short interest in Bank of America (BAC) dropped by 12.3 million to 112.8 million. Share short in Lehman (LEH) fell 11.5 million to 70.6 million. Short interest in Ambac (ABK) fell 8.3 million to 83.5 million. Shares short in Wachovia (WB) dropped 6.4 million to 271.9 million and the short interest in Wells Fargo (WFC) dropped 7.4 million to 165.8 million.
Continue reading "Shorts See Market Bottom, Flee Financials (MER)(BAC)(LEH)(ABK)(WB)" »
If you think the long-gone uptick rule or naked shorting was important for financial stocks, you might wonder what was going on in technology stocks with short sellers. In the major NASDAQ tech companies, there was a remarkable deterioration of the interest in short selling from just mid-July to late-July. Below is a list showing the decrease in the short interest with two exceptions at the end:
Shorts sellers suffered from a lack of conviction on the direction of financial stocks in the period that ended July 31. They were clear that betting against tech was no longer a good idea.
While the short interest in Washington Mutual (WM) rose 25% to 341.1 million shares and Wachovia (WB) and Wells Fargo (WFC) were both up about 7%, the short position in Bank of America (BAC) dropped 9% to 125 million. Shares short in Merrill Lynch (MER) fell 14% to 54.9 million and dropped 8 million to 48.9 million in JP Morgan (JPM).
The special rules designed to curb "abusive naked short selling" in 19 prominent financial stocks are set to expire on Wednesday, and no one's quite sure what will happen if the SEC doesn't extend the special rule designed to prevent shares of bad companies from going down.
Dylan Wetherill, founder of ShortSqueeze.com told CNBC that "If the SEC removes the rule, it will give the short sellers the edge in the market they are looking for."
Continue reading ""Emergency" Short-Selling Rules Set To Expire On Wednesday" »
When you hear the group of conspiracy theorists that Gary Weiss so aptly named "The Baloney Brigade" talking about naked short selling, you get the idea that unscrupulous short sellers are driving down the prices of some stocks far below the price they would fetch in a fair market.
Regulators may be trying to keep short sellers out of a few financial stocks, but that is not keeping large bets against most other stocks from rising.
While some of the shorts may have moved on from the "protected" stocks, as of July 15, the short interest in Fannie Mae (FNM) rose 15.7 million shares to 154.4 million. Shares short in Freddie Mac were up 23.1 million to 105.9 million.
Newly-minted legend says that short-selling put Bear Stearns out of business and has swamped the stock prices of Lehman (LEH), Fannie Mae (FNM), and Freddie Mac (FRE). To keep evil from further invading the stock markets, short selling should be put to sleep.
According to The Wall Street Journal, "In a dramatic emergency order, the SEC said it would immediately move to curb improper short selling in the stocks of struggling mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as those of 17 financial firms, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS)., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Morgan Stanley (MS) and Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER)."
Breaking that down for a moment, "improper short selling" has always been against the law. Banning it twice is not likely to change the complexion of that prohibition.
Short selling is one of the great services that a portion of investors do for the markets. Public company managements cannot help but feel good about their own prospects. It is the nature of the beast. Executives work for good results and the upbeat nature of their forecasts is part of the psychology that keeps them slaving for their shareholders. Short selling plays the "emperor has no clothes" role
Banning short selling assumes that those long shares in a company have no power to influence the media, stockholders, and securities analysts. The theory claims that all of the weapons are in the possession of one side in the fight, which means that the other side will surrender.
Since the problems at companies like Fannie Mae and Merrill Lynch are real and not imagined, it is hard to make the argument that short sellers made them worse. The shorts bet against companies that they knew had made mistakes and they made profits doing it. Forcing them to act otherwise gives investors who want a stock to go up a substantial advantage, even if they do not deserve it.
Putting shorts out of business does not do the market any favors. It just pushes the day of reckoning for companies that failed their stockholders out a little further into the future.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Several agencies within the federal government will start to target people and firms who spread rumors to move share prices up and down. Allegedly, this is a practices often used by short sellers to push stock prices lower.
According to The Wall Street Journal, "The Securities and Exchange Commission, under fire for not responding more vigorously to a raft of rumors that have pounded stock prices, says it is cracking down on firms or individuals that illegally spread false rumors"
What is a false rumor? It may be hard to draw a bright line. Lehman Bros (LEH) has been hurt by reports that it has been losing customers and that its write-offs are growing. The same questions are being asked about several other Wall St. firms. Of course, the reports could be true. To a large extent, the answer as to who is right may take several quarters to sort out.
A "false" rumor is obviously a tale made up to move a share price. But, as that rumor is heard by a second or third party, how do they know whether it is true or it is not? Traders make decisions as much on instinct about the quality of information as anything else. Verifying each piece of information could take days. By that time, the market has come and gone.
Rumors are as old at trading itself. Trying to prevent them is like chasing a ghost.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Short sellers seems to think the either the merger between Sirius (SIRI) and XM Satellite (XMSR) will not go through or that it will be too late for the financially crippled companies.
Short interest in XMSR rose 5.3 million shares to 28 million for the period ending June 30. The short interest in SIRI was up 5.9 million to 153.9 million. It now has the second largest short position of any stock traded on Nasdaq.
Although the FCC has signaled that it will approve the merger, Wall St. is concerned that the restrictions put on the new company will be onerous. They may not be able to raise the rates that they charge subscribers. With their unit sales slowing, the ability to move prices up could be critical to the financial health of the merged operation.
Even if the marriage is approved, each company has well in excess of $1 billion in debt. Their bonds have a "junk" rating, so raising more money may be difficult. Current shareholders would certainly face tremendous dilution.
The companies are also bedeviled by the fact that their major source of subscribers is new car sales. With auto sales in a downturn that could easily last another two years, it is unlikely that satellite radio growth will be robust.
Advantage to the shorts.
Douglas A. McIntyre
The short interest in most financial and industrial companies rose sharply for the period ending June 30.
Shares sold short in Washington Mutrual (WM) rose 21.6 million to 276.4 million. Short interest in Wachvia (WB) rose 57.9 million to 235.3 million. Share short in GM (GM) rose 32.8 million to 152.9 million. Short interest in Wells Fargo (WFC) moved up 11.3 million to 152.1 million.
Shares short in Citigroup (C) moved up 16.3 million to 152 million. Short interest in Bank of America (BAC) was up 18.8 million to 101.5 million. Shares short in GE (GE) was up 14.9 million to 89.7 million.
Shares sold short in a number of tech and telecom companeis also rose. The short interest in Intel (INTC) was up 27.4 million to 89.1 million. Short interest in Cisco (CSCO) was higher by 7.7 million to 72.6 million. Shares short in Level 3 (LVLT) rose 7.6 million to 244.2 million. The short interest in Dell (DELL) was up 7.4 million to 67.9 million. The short interest in Yahoo! (YHOO) was up 5.7 million to 53.2 million..
Shares short in Sirius (SIRI) rose 5.7 million to 153.9 million. Short interest in XM (XMSR) moved up 5.7 millon to 22.4 million.
Data from NYSE and Nasdaq
Douglas A. McIntyre
These are not all of the solar stocks we cover on NASDAQ, but as you can see the short selling against these stocks has increased as of mid-June despite the high energy costs. Here we ran the short interest for our main names in solar power NASDAQ such as First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQL FSLR), SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ: SPWR), Evergreen Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: ESLR), Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ), Akeena Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: AKNS), and Hoku Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOKU).
We broke these down by the stock with the date and we showed a comparison of both the May 30 date and what the related changes were at that date as well.
First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR)
AS OF DATE Short Int. Change
06/13/2008 4,183,584 20.16%
05/30/2008 3,481,565 -1.03%
SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ: SPWR)
AS OF DATE Short Int. Change
06/13/2008 16,804,676 6.46%
05/30/2008 15,784,486 3.63%
Evergreen Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: ESLR)
AS OF DATE Short Int. Change
06/13/2008 29,219,334 20.92%
05/30/2008 24,164,046 9.23%
Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ)
AS OF DATE Short Int. Change
06/13/2008 4,634,187 8.23%
05/30/2008 4,281,924 -0.68%
Akeena Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: AKNS)
AS OF DATE Short Int. Change
06/13/2008 3,718,884 10.32%
05/30/2008 3,371,093 2.77%
Hoku Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOKU)
AS OF DATE Short Int. Change
06/13/2008 3,031,978 10.80%
05/30/2008 2,736,325 -19.45%
Jon C. Ogg
June 25, 2008
Based on data from Nasdaq as of June 13, short sellers made heavy bets against tech stocks. Many investors clearly think the sector is not immune from the current economic downturn.
The short interest in Cisco (CSCO) rose 14 million to 64.9 million. Shares short in Intel (INTC) moved up 8.5 million to 61.8 million. Short interest in Dell (DELL) jumped 10.5 million to 60.5 million. Shares short in Sun (JAVA) rocketed up 32.4 million to 57.1 million. The short interest in Broadcom (BRCM) moved up 3.7 million to 35.4 million. Shares short in Qualcomm (QCOM) moved up 2.2 million to 27.5 million.
Other notable stocks with rising short interest include Amgen (AMGN) where shares short rose 25.8 million to 48.4 million, E*Trade where short interest was up 16.7 million to 122.5 million, Sirius (SIRI) with a short interest increase of 6.7 million to 148 million, and Starbucks (SBUX) where shares short moved up 6.3 million to 42.3 million.
Shares short in Yahoo! (YHOO) fell 19 million to 47.5 million.
Data from Nasdaq
Douglas A. McIntyre
Citigroup's (C) CFO says he see write-downs through the end of the year. The head of hedge fund Paulson & Co,says bank losses will hit $1.3 trillion. Write-downs at Lehman (LEH) and AIG (AIG) were much larger than were expected.
It may well be a long, hard second half for the bank, insurance, and brokerage sectors.
It is any wonder that short sellers have upped their bets against big financial companies. As of June 15, the short interest in Wachovia (WB) rose 26.2 million shares to 177.3 million. Share short in Washington Mutual (WM) were up 50 million to 254.8 million. The short interest in Citigroup (C) was up 20 million to 135.7 million. Shares short in Ambac (ABK) rose 12.3 million to 74.5 million. The short interest in JPMorgan (JPM) was up 11.9 million shares to 63 million and shares short in AIG (AIG) moved up 12.6 million to 67.4 million.
Car stocks were also hit hard by shorts. Shares short in GM (GM) rose 14.9 million to 120.2 million. Shares short in Ford (F) rose 31.3 million to 317.6 million.
Short sellers also made large increases in their positions in GE (GE), Wal-Mart (WMT), Motorola (MOT), and Delta (DAL)
Shorts moved out of EMC (EMC) and Qwest (Q).
Douglas A. McIntyre
Wall St. almost always takes the public proclamations of hedge funds and short sellers with a grain of salt. But, some of the recent negative comments about Lehman Bros. may well have turned out to be true.
John Paulson, head of the hedge fund GAIM International and not a relative of the current Treasury Secretary, says that banking write-downs will hit $1.3 trillion. He sees the next year being worse for the financial system than the last year has been. Bloomberg quotes him as saying ``We're only about a third of the way through the writedowns." Paulson does think distressed securities are a good investment now, so he may be talking out of both sides of his hat.
If the projection is right, it would not be hard to imagine big money center banks getting hurt much worse as the year goes on. Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), UBS (UBS), and several brokerages and insurers may have to seek out several billion dollars more capital each.
Most large cap financials are near 52-week lows. Paulson's view of the world would almost certainly cause them to sell off more. Oppenheimer's Meredith Whitney, the most quoted of bank analysts, has already said she feels the darkest days are still ahead.
Citigroup at $10? It was last there in 1995.
Douglas A. McIntyre
A look at short interest for stocks traded on the Nasdaq as of May 30 show that traders moved into Yahoo! (YHOO) and out of Sirius (SIRI) Shares short in Yahoo! rose 19.2 million shares to 66.6 million. Share short in Sirius fell 29.1 million to 141.3 million.
Short sellers also moved out of several tech, telecom, and cable companies. Shares short in Dell (DELL) fell 3.5 million to 50 million. Shares short in Oracle (ORCL) moved down 2.3 million to 49.4 million. Short seller pulled out of Level 3 (LVLT), dropping their positions by 7 million shares to 231.9 million. Shares short in Comcast (CMCSA) moved down 7.5 million to 59.2 million.
Short seller did move into some techs, most notably Juniper (JNPR) where the short interest was up 8.7 million to 43.3 million and Symantec (SYMC) where shares short went up 4.3 million to 33.7 million. Shares short in Intel (INTC) were up 2.5 million to 53.3 million. Short interest in Qualcomm (QCOM) rose 2.8 million to 25.3 million.
Data from Nasdaq
Douglas A. McIntyre
Short sellers sharply increased their bets against big US banks based on data from the NYSE as of May 30. The number compare with those onMay 15.
Short interest in Washington Mutual (WM) was up 12.2 million shares to 204.9 million. Shares short in Wells Fargo (WFC) rose 29.3 million to 153.1 million. Short interest in Wachovia (WB) rocketed 30.5 million shares to 151 million., The short position against Fannie Mae (FNM) moved up 24.8 million to 129 million. Shares short in Lehman (LEH) moved up 2.1 million to 76.1 million. Short interest in AIG (AIG) jumped 11.4 million to 54.8 million.
Short sellers also made increasing bets against car companies. Shares short in GM (GM) moved up 4.7 million to 105.2 million. Ford's (F) short interest, the largest of any company on the NYSE, jumped 6.1 million to 286.4 million.
Short sellers also gambled that GE (GE) shares would fall, increasing their position by 11 million shares to 68.7 million. Shares short in airline AMR (AMR) moved up 10.7 million to 52.5 million.
Short sellers moved out of Sprint (S), selling down 4.9 million shares to leave 78.8 million. Shorts also exited Motorola (MOT), dropping their interest by 3.4 million shares to 45.4 million.
Data from NYSE
Douglas A. McIntyre
A legal consortium of law firms has just filed suit on behalf of certain shareholders of TASER International Inc. (NASDAQ: TASR). Two Houston-based firms, The O'Quinn Law Firm and Christian Smith & Jewell, and Atlanta-based Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore, LLP filed a Complaint in the State Court of Fulton County, Georgia. This suit is against some of the top Wall Street bulge-bracket firms. Listed in the complaint are the following:
The complaint does not stop at naked short selling. This one alleges a flood of counterfeit shares that were put in the market to allow short sales. To take things even further, this alleges RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization) violations in the State of Georgia. RICO should turn this into a criminal matter rather than just a civil matter like most class action lawsuits, assuming that stays in the suit.
If you look at Taser's short interest on NASDAQ for May 15, 2008, it has crept back up to 17,208,352 shares listed as short. That is 8.6 days to cover, and apparently just over 30% of the float. But that level is also much less than the 19.2 million shares short in mid-March and less than the 20+ million readings seen in short interest in January and February.
Jon C. Ogg
May 28, 2008
The overall short interest on NASDAQ stocks was actually pretty dull from the end of April to Mid-May, or at least that is the case until you go straight into looking at solar stocks and other alternative energy stocks. Many of these have seen their stock prices rise sharply over the last few months. Many were viable with $70 or $80 oil, but after $100 and then $130 oil you can imagine that short sellers are targeting the most up or most speculative names.
MAY 15 APRIL 30 CHANGE
Akeena Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKNS) 3,280,165 3,042,025 7.83%
Ascent Solar Tech (NASDAQ: ASTI) 2,106,784 1,889,624 11.49%
Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ) 4,311,126 3,562,672 21.01%
Capstone Turbine (NASDAQ: CPST) 12,860,110 11,491,389 11.91%
Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ: ESLR) 22,122,144 20,622,446 7.27%
Fuel Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ: FTEK) 7,488,443 6,443,583 16.22%
Otter Tail Corp. (NASDAQ: OTTR) 2,126,732 1,960,651 8.47%
SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) 15,231,873 14,016,469 8.67%
As you have seen, most of these are solar plays, but some aren't. Fuel Tech helps power plants burn cleaner coal, and it has had more problems over the last year on making its earnings numbers. Otter Tail is a diversified "General Eclectic" but it has become more well known for making wind towers of late; and it hasn't hurt that Bill Gates has been a holder for quite some time. Capstone Turbine has been our largest winner in our weekly "10 Stocks Under $10" newsletter in the sector with a 200% gain; and it is still an active hold in that group. We also just featured Akeena Solar over at VSinvestor.com for a highly unusual volume spike alert.
These are the ones we screened with the largest short interest increases in the sector seem to be more speculative names, although there were some that saw decreases and we excluded those from this list. Out of the alternative energy or "cleaner" energy stocks we follow, these were the ones with the largest increase in the short interest.
You can join our open email distribution list to hear about other issues in short interest, secondary offerings, IPO's, private equity, special financings.
Jon Ogg
May 28, 2008
Short sellers TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.(NASDAQ: AMTD), E*TRADE Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC), and Charles Schwab Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHW) look like a mixed bag on the surface, but the trends in two of the three are going up as far as short selling. Some might even call it alarming.
TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.(NASDAQ: AMTD)
Date Short Interest Change Days
05/15/2008 7,524,826 -13.7% 2.80
04/30/2008 8,718,910 4.63% 2.52
TD Ameritrade was the only one of the major online brokerage firms that didn't see a rise in its short interest.
E*TRADE Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC)
Date Short Interest Change Days
05/15/2008 111,402,617 6.58% 5.11
04/30/2008 104,521,843 9.63% 4.16
This is now the third gain in short selling E*TRADE shares, and the number is starting to look disturbing if you just look at the raw number of shares. It is also disturbing if you look at the days to cover as this is the first time that it has represented more than 5-days volume over the last year, although the good news is that the daily average volume has almost steadily slid lower during 2008.
Charles Schwab Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHW)
Date Short Interest Change Days
05/15/2008 32,213,885 0.33% 3.90
04/30/2008 32,108,175 27.23% 2.48
After a solid gain in short interest by 27% on the last report, this is the highest short interest in Schwab over the last year.
Despite the increased short selling in E*Trade, this one remains our top financial pick for 2008 into 2009 in the financial sector for our weekly "10 Stocks Under $10" newsletter.
You can join our open email distribution list to hear about other issues in secondary offerings, IPO's, private equity, special financings.
Jon C. Ogg
May 28, 2008
Short sellers moved out of Microsoft (MSFT) based on data as of May 15 compared with numbers on April 20. Short interest in the software company fell by 25 million shares to 73.4 million.
Other tech companies were not so lucky. Shares short in Yahoo! (YHOO) rose 9.4 million to 47.3 million. Juniper (JNPR) watched it short interest move up 7.7 million to 34.6 million. Shares short in Comcast (CMCSA) moved up 6.1 million to 66.8 million. Shares short in Intel (INTC) rose 5.8 million to 50.8 million. Short interest in Marvell Tech (MRVL) rose 4.2 million to 25.9 million. Short interest in Adobe (ADBE) was up 3,6 million to 17.3 million.
Several severely beaten down stocks say marked improvement in their short position. Share short in Sirius (SIRI) fell 18.5 million to 170.4 million. Share short in Sun (JAVA) dropped 9.6 million to 23.3 million. The short interest in Level 3 (LVLT) fell by 4.6 million to 238.9 million. And, shares short in Charter (CHTR) moved down by 3.3 million to 78.6 million.
Data from Nasdaq
Douglas A. McIntyre
Short sellers are making significant bets that most financial stocks traded on the NYSE will fall sharply. Data is as of May 15 and compares to information on April 30.
Short interest in Countrywide (CFC) rose 26 million shares to 102.4 million Share sold short in National City rose 39.6 million to 138.8 milion. Shares short in Fannie Mae (FNM) rose 17.9 to 104.3 million. Short interest in Washington Mutual (WM) moved up 8.4 million to 192.7 million. Shares short in Freddie Mac (FRE) rose 10 million to 63.2 million. Short interest in Ambac (ABK) moved up 10.1 million to 58.2 million.
Among large cap stocks, the short interest was also up in CBS (CBS) rising by 6.7 million to 37.2 million. Short interest in Motorola (MOT) was up 8.8 million to 48.8 million.
The once sector in which short sellers made a major exit was tech and telecom. Share short in Sprint (S) fell 13.6 million to 83.7 million. Short interest in Texas Intruments (TXN) fell 12.2 million to 35.2 million. Short interest in Micron (MU) dropped 6.4 million to 76.9 million. Shares short in HP (HPQ) fell 4.3 million to 23.2 million. And short interest in AMD (AMD) dropped 1.1 million shares to 98 million.
Data from NYSE
Douglas A. McIntyre
The short interest in Sirius (SIRI) inflated by 30.9 million shares to 188.9 million. The figures compare April 30 to April 15 numbers. Investor are clearly willing to gamble against the company's merger with XM Satellite (XMSR).
Several banking stocks also say spikes in short interest. Shares sold short in Huntington (HBAN) moved higher by 9.6 million to 47.2 million. Shares short in E*Trade (ETFC) rose 9.2 million to 104.5 million. The short interest in Zions Bancorp (ZION) moved higher by 7.3 million to 23.2 million. Share short in Schwab (SCHW) moved up 6.9 million to 32.1 million. And, the short interest in Hudson City Bancorp (HCBK) was up 3.6 million to 27.2 million.
Other notable increases in short interest included share short in Oracle (ORCL) which rose 8.7 million to 51.4 million and Broadcom (BRCM) which had a move up of 8.2 million to 38.6 million.
Most technical and telecommunications stocks lost traders willing to bet against them. The short interest in Intel (INTC) fell 10.9 million shares to 44.9 million. Shares short in Microsft (MSFT) were off 10.6 million to 98.4 million. The short interest in Comcast (CMCSA) dropped 8.9 million to 60.7 million. Shares short in Cisco (CSCO) fell 5.9 million to 60 million. Short interest in Qualcomm (QCOM) dropped 5.7 million to 20.2 million.
Data from Nasdaq
Douglas A. McIntyre
Continue reading "Nasdaq Short Interest: More Bets Against Sirius (SIRI) And Banks" »
Not all financial shares are created equal, at least no according to short bets made on NYSE companies for the period ending. April 30 compared to numbers on April 15.
Short interest in Washington Mutual (WM) dropped 11 million shares to 184.3 million. Short interest in Citicorrp (C) fell 10.4 million to 109.4 million. Short interest in Countrywide (CFC) fell 22.5 million to 76.4 million. In the case of these companies, each has either raised money or is being bought out.
Short interest in several financial firms took a big jump. Wachovia (WB) was up 14.8 million to 117.4 million. Short interest in National City (NCC) rose 40.4 million to 100.3 million. Short interest in Fannie Mae (FNM) rose 12.8 million shares to 85.4 million.Share short in Wells Fargo (WFC) rose 12.3 million to 122.5 million. Shares sold short in Ambac (ABK) moved up 16.8 million to 48.1 million.
Other large increases in shares sold short included Ford (F) where short interest rose 11.3 million to 293.1 million. Sprint (S) increased 16.6 million to 92.3 million.
Short interest in some large companies dropeed sharply. Shares short in in AT&T (T) fell 15.3 million to 38 milion and shares sold short iin Citicut City (CC) fell 8.5 million to 27.4 million.
Data from NYSE
Douglas A. McIntyre
Maybe some of the investors short Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) figured the company would have a good quarter. Shares sold short in the consumer electronics firm fell 3.8 million shares to 18.4 million shares. The figures compare numbers on April 15 to those on March 30.
On the 15th, the stock closed at $148.38. Earnings pushed that number to $170.41 earlier today, a move of almost 15%.
Investors won't have another shot at Apple's earnings for 90 days. But, if the company releases a 3G iPhone during June, the stock may have another $20 in it.
Watch for the short interest in the stock to drop again at the end of this month.
Douglas A. McIntyre
David Herro, Harris Associates' chief investment officer, recently said that he loves Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) as an long-term buy. A lot of short sellers don't see it that way.
The short interest in Dell rose 7.2 million shares to 49 million, making it the fifth largest move up for any company listed on the Nasdaq. The number is as of April 15 and compares to figures on March 30.
The main case against Dell may be Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Steve Jobs's company sold 2.2 million Macs in the first quarter, up 51%. That puts the run-rate for Mac sales this year at almost 10 million per annum. That number is getting large enough to unnerve Dell and HP (NYSE: HPQ).
The other problem Dell has is that the overall slowdown in the economy in the US, the company's largest market, is likely to reduce the rate at which companies and people buy new PCs.
With the broad PC market in trouble and Apple picking up market share, it is getting hard to make a case for Dell's stock, long or short-term.
Douglas A. McIntyre
The short position in Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) is moving up, For April 15, it jumped by 6.0 million shares to 33 million. The was the sixth largest move up among all stocks traded on Nasdaq.
The news is especially troubling for Sun because it already trades fairly near its 52-week low, changing hands at $15.49.
Sun still face one significant hurdle with investors. Revenue growth has been in the low single-digits the last two quarters. Analysts are looking for 3% sales growth for Q1. With the economy tight, there is some fair concern that the company may not even make that number.
Sun's core line of business, servers, is an item which companies can often defer buying, especially if the purchase is for replacement machines and not additional units.
The short don't think the quarter will be good. The current share price is saying that they are right.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) has become a short seller's dream. Shares sold short in the company moved up by 4.9 million to 39.8 million on April 15 compared to the figures on March 30.
Those who bet against the company should have gotten a huge pay day. On the 15th, the stock traded at $17.32, near its 52-week high. But, when the company announced that it would miss both its Q1 and full year forecasts the shares dropped ot $15.39.
Starbucks has lost over 60% of its value since spring of 2006. Most of the bad news is probably out, at least for several months. Look for short interest to drop when numbers are posted for April 30.
Check out the 24/7 Wall St. "Ten Stocks Under $10 Newsletter". It comes out every week, all year long.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Short sellers have fallen in love with Sirius Satellite (NASDAQ: SIRI). Actually, they were already in love. It has moved to infatuation.
The short interest in SIRI sky-rocketed for the period ending April 15 compared to March 30. Shares sold short moved up 20.2 million to 157.9 million. The company's merger partner, XM Satellite (XMSR) also watched its short interest rise by 6.3 million shares to 22.7 million.
The figure for Sirius is especially disturbing because, at $2.67, it was recently at a 52-week low.
Investors could be making one of two bets. The first is that the FCC will not approve the merger of the two satellite radio companies because the agency believes that it would create a monopoly. SIRI and XMSR are counting on the tie-up so that they can save redundant costs. Neither makes money now.
The other concern may be that a merger will do very little to save the companies. Each has over $1 billion in debt and in the current credit environment, that may be almost impossible to refinance. The companies may simply not be well capitalized enough to make it at all.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Hansen Natural Corporation (NASDAQ:HANS) has announced a new share buyback program for up to $200 million of its own common stock.
The Board of Directors has thus terminated the previous stock buyback plan that was authorized back in November 2005. Under that plan, the company had repurchased some $27.7 million of common stock. Hansen Natural noted that it had 93,440,891 shares of common stock outstanding.
Shares closed at $31.61 yesterday and its 52-week trading range is $30.77 to $68.40 and its market cap was $2.95 Billion. As of December 31, 2007 the company had some $75.5 million in cash and short-term equivalents (before $227 million 'long term') on its books.
If the company theoretically exercised the full amount and was able to get shares at yesterday's prices, then it would come out to 6.3 million shares of common stock or close to 3-days worth of average trading volume. As of mid-April, Hansen had 15.795 million shares listed in its short interest. That is the highest short interest seen in the stock in recent history.
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Jon C. Ogg
April 25, 2008
According to Nasdaq data for the period ending April 15, short sellers moved aggressively out of tech shares. The figure compare with those posted on March 31.
The short interest in Microsoft (MSFT) fell 9.3 million to 109.1 million, perhaps on hopes that it will lower or drops its bid for Yahoo! (YHOO). Shares short in Intel (INTC) dropped 7.3 million to 55.9 million. The chip company's results showed that PC sales were not slowing as much as has been expected. Shares short in Cisco (CSCO) dropped 6.8 million to 62.9 million. Shares short in RF Micro (RFMD) dropped 4.9 million to 28.7 million and shares short in Finisair (FNSR) fell 6.8 million to 15.8 million.
Shares sold short in Level 3 (LVLT) moved down 6.7 million to 237.2 million. When the company posted earnings a short squeeze appears to have helped shares rally.
Shares short in Apple (AAPL) fell 3.6 million to 18.4 million ahead of its strong earnings.
In the internet sector, shares short in Yahoo! (YHOO) dropped 5.1 million to 36.1 million, perhaps on hopes that Microsoft will raise its offer. Shares short in Ebay (EBAY) fell 4.9 million to 26.2 million.
Short sellers bet right on Starbucks (SBUX) moved up 4.9 million to 39.8 million on a bet which paid off when the company pre-announced poor numbers.
Some investors clearly think there is no turnaournd at Dell (DELL) coming.Short interest in the company jumped 7.2 million to 49 million. Short sellers also see another set of bad numbers coming out of Sun Microsystems (JAVA). Shares sold short in the company moved up 6.9 million to 33 million.
And, a number of investors showed that they do not think a merger will do much for Sirius (SIRI). Shares sold short in the company moved up 20.2 million to 157.9 million
Data from Nasdaq
Douglas A. McIntyre.
The mid-month reports on short interest in NYSE shares showed that many short sellers moved out of big financial stocks but made large bets against airlines and auto companies. With the prices in these industries already at multi-year lows, some shorts have to be betting that one or more of the big companies will fill Chapter 11.
The short interest in Citigroup (C) fell 7.6 million shares to 120.2 million. Shares short in Wachovia (WB) dropped 3.7 million to 102.8 million. The short interest in NCC (NCC) dropped 4.7 million to 59.9 million. Short interest in Wells Fargo (WFC) and Bank of America (BAC) also dropped modestly.
The home loan companies did not follow the financial stock trend. Shares short in Fannie Mae (FNM) rose 10.5 million to 73.6 million. Share short in Freddie Mac (FRE) moved up 5.7 million to 51.1 million.
Short sellers made big moves into auto and airline stocks. Shares short in Ford (F) jumped 27.3 million shares to 271.9 million. Short interest in GM (GM) rose 6.1 million shares to 95.5 million. Shares short in AMR (AMR) moved up 6.2 million to 39.5 million. The short interest in Northwest (NWA) jumped 4.5 million to 14.8 million.
Other notable movers included Time Warner Cable (TWC) where the short interest rose 9.4 million to 17.8 million and Halliburton (HAL) where share short increased 7 million to 64 million.
On the positive side shares short in Motorola (MOT) fell 12.1 million to 38.9 million. Shares short in Boston Scientific (BSX) fell 8.5 million to 37.8 million and the short interest in Pfizer (PFE) dropped 6.8 million to 55.7 million.
Data from the NYSE
Douglas A. McIntrye
Most companies on Nasdaq did fairly well with the shorts in the period which ended on March 31 compared to March 14. The two tremendous exceptions were Level 3 (LVLT) where short interest moved up 20.3 million shares to 243.9 million, and Sirius (SIRI) were share sold short jumped 40.4 million to 137.8 million
In a tough stock market and credit environment, it is not hard to see why investors would place bets against both companies. Each stock trades near its 52-week low. Level 3 recently pushed out its president. Although it is in an attractive business, bandwidth infrastructure, it is a patch-work of M&A work with a large amount of debt and almost no cash-flow. In other words, a liquidation candidate in a deep recession.
Sirius is also hurt by a high debt-load, over $1.2 billion, and negative operating income. If the company's merger with XM Satellite (XMSR) does not go through, it may not be able to survive as a standalone company either.
As a tip of the cap to the troubled airline industry, shares short in JetBlue (JBLU) moved up 7.1 million to 44.1 million.
For the majority of other big Nasdaq stocks, the news was better. Shares short in E*Trade (ETFC) dropped 14.1 million to 90.3 million, a signal that investors think the company's discount broker operation can do well despite the firm's mortgage balance sheet problems.
Shares short in Intel (INTC) dropped 12 million to 63.2 million. Short interest in Yahoo! (YHOO) dropped 8.5 million to 41.3 million. Microsoft's (MSFT) short interest fell 4.7 million to 118.4 million. At Dell (DELL) short interest fell 3.7 million to 41.8 million. And at Cisco (CSCO) short interest was off 3.4 million to 69.7 million.
Investor willingness to take a stand against tech stocks is beginning to shrink.
Takeover target Take-Two (TTWO) had a dropped off in shares short of 5.5 million to 11.6 million. Some investors see the price offered by Electronic Arts (ERTS) going higher
Douglas A. McIntyre
