Short Interest in Chip Stocks Points Higher

As of January 15, short interest in several semiconductor stocks increased as investors continued to bet against PC processors and memory chips in favor of mobile devices. With only a couple of exceptions, short interest in chip stocks is on the rise again.

For Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), short interest fell 0.7% to 213.43 million shares. About 4.3% of Intel’s float was short. Intel has already reported fourth-quarter results that missed EPS estimates, so the shorts are clearing out, waiting for the next round of buying to bolster the share price and give them more headroom for a profitable short sale.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) saw short interest rise by 1.6% to 122.94 million shares, or 23% of the company's total float. AMD, like Intel, has already reported fourth-quarter results and the share price has been sinking — not the direction short sellers like to see.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) short interest rose 6.7% to 21.21 million shares, which represents about 1.3% of the company’s float. Qualcomm reports quarterly results Wednesday and is expected to post EPS of $1.18 on revenues of $6.66 billion. Since January 15, shares are down more than $2.00.

ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH) saw an 18.8% drop in short interest to 5.61 million shares, which represents about 1.2% of the total float. There is no date scheduled yet for the company’s earnings announcement, but analysts expect EPS of $0.26 on revenues of $295.94 million. Both numbers are above the company’s year-ago results.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) showed a rise of 2.8% in short interest to 118.31 million shares, or about 12% of its float. Short interest in Micron hit a peak of 133.4 million shares at the end of November, and the company’s shares are up 8.5% since then. Shorts must be thinking that now is a good time to get back into the stock.

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) saw short interest rise by 3% to 22.31 million shares, or about 10% of the company’s float. The stock is up more than 10% since mid-October and posted a 52-week high just about a week ago. That is sure to get short sellers interested.

Short interest in Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) rose 17.3% to 12.33 million shares. That is 2.2% of the total float. Broadcom is scheduled to report results on Thursday, and analysts estimate EPS at $0.57 on revenues of $2.02 billion. Both figures are below last year’s totals.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) posted a 22.4% increase in short interest to 9.9 million shares, or about 3.1% of Marvell’s float. Over the past 12 months, the stock is up more than 57%. Shorts expect that something has to give pretty soon, especially given the company’s dependence on the disk drive business.

Nvidia Corp.’s (NASDAQ: NVDA) short interest rose by 11% to 59.52 million shares, or about 11% of the company’s float. Nvidia stock is up nearly 23% in the past 12 months, and it posted its 52-week high earlier this month. This also looks to be an opportunity for short sales.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) saw short interest fall by 2.1% to 22.85 million shares, or 2.1% of the float. TI reported earnings last week, pulling the shares back from a 52-week high and cooling, for the moment at least, any added interest from short sellers.