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