Chip Stocks’ Short Interest Tied to PCs, Mobile Devices (INTC, AMD, QCOM, ARMH, MU, SNDK, BRCM, MRVL, NVDA, TXN, AMAT, SMH)

We have tracked the key short interest changes as of August 31 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) rose 15.6% to 176 million shares. This is the highest total in a year for Intel. About 3.5% of Intel’s float is now short.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) saw short interest rise 11.7% to 110 million shares, 18.4% of the company’s total float.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) short interest rose 9.7% to 18.8 million shares, which represents just 1.1% of the company’s float.

ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH) saw a 4.2% decline in short interest to 6.6 million shares, which represents about 1.4% of the firm’s float.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) showed a rise of 2.6% in short interest, to 69 million shares, about 6.8% of Micron’s float.

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) saw short interest rise by 0.9% to 9.6 million shares, or 4% of the company’s float.

Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) saw short interest fall by 24.5% to 5.8 million shares, or 1.1% of the total float.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) posted a whopping 34.4% rise in short interest, to 7.2 million shares, about 1.6% of Marvell’s float.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) short interest fell about 10.1%, to 9.5 million shares or about 1.6% of the company’s float.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) saw short interest rise by 5.3% to 19.4 million shares or 1.7% of the company’s float.

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) saw short interest rising 5.3% to 18.5 million shares or about 1.5% of the company’s float.

The Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (NYSEMKT: SMH) showed a gain of 0.9% in short interest to 5.2 million shares.

Most chip stocks have been hit hard by weak forecasts for PC shipments. Companies that manufacture parts for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have fared better. Marvell, which makes controller chips for hard drives, took a pounding in the final two weeks of August.

Paul Ausick