Short Sellers Keep Exiting High-Priced Leaders (AMZN, AAPL, BIDU, FFIV, GS, GOOG, IBM, MA, NFLX, POT, PCLN, CRM, VMW, WYNN)

The short sellers keep running for cover as the bull market continues. In the actively traded high-priced market leaders, the trend continues for less and less short selling and many of these are now at the lowest readings of the year and are a fraction of the 2010 peak levels. The settlement date is December 31, 2010 and we compared each to December 15 and prior dates.

Our list includes Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU), F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA), Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT), Priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ: PCLN), Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM), VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), and Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN).

We have broken these names out individually in an alphabetic list, showing the decrease (or the small gains) and a short interest share count as of December 31 settlement date versus the December 15 settlement date, plus we have shown other short interest data.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) saw a slight uptick in the short interest at December 31 settlement date with a reading of 8.926 million shares after having seen a 9.2% decrease on December 15 after having seen a near-15% decrease in the report on November 30.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) saw yet another drop as the December 31 settlement was down to 6.777 million shares after having seen drops before.  This was more than 9 million shares as recently as mid-November.  Apple’s short interest was the lowest it had been all year and is now only one-third of what it had been in February 2010.

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) saw a slight drop again to 7.82 million shares at the December 31 settlement date; this makes four consecutive reports of a decrease in the short interest and is only one-third of the short interest since March 15, 2010.

F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) saws another drop down to 4.169 million shares at the December 31 settlement from 4.254 million shares in mid-December.

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) was at 5.563 million shares on the December 31 settlement date, down from 5.906 million shares in mid-December.  That marks three decreases in a row.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) saw its fifth consecutive drop down to 3.136 million shares as of the December 31 date and that marks the lowest reading of 2010.

International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) saw another double-digit percentage drop to 13.558 million shares versus 16.299 million in mid-December; this is the third drop in a row and down from over 18 million shares at the end of November.

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) saw a drop to 1.547 million shares from 1.873 million in mid-December; ths marks the smallest short interest of 2010 for this issue.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) saw another gain to 10.818 million shares at the December 31 date versus 10.226 million in mid-December.

Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) saw another double-digit percentage drop and the short interest fell to 4,059,704 shares at December 31 for its third straight drop and to the lowest level in 2010.

Priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ: PCLN) fell slightly in its short interest to 2.956 million shares from 3.044 million shares in mid-December.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) saw another large drop to 9.211 million shares as of December 31 versus 10.08 million shares short as of December 15.  This is the first sub-10 million reading since the end of August.

VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) saw another drop in its short interest to 5.122 million shares as of December 31 versus 5.558 million shares in mid-December; this marks the sixth straight drop and was the lowest reading in 2010.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) saw another drop in the short interest to 4.399 million shares on the December 31 date versus 4.779 million shares short in mid-December.  This is down by a third since November and marked the lowest level of 2010.

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JON C. OGG