Short Interest in Active Stocks: Another Big Swing for Dell

We have tracked the key short interest changes as of April 15 in the following large cap stocks: General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: ANR), McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) and Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO).

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) short interest rose 4.8% to 82.7 million shares. About 0.8% of GE’s float is now short.

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) saw short interest fall by 12.8% to 260.55 million shares, about 7% of the company’s total float.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) short interest rose 7.1% to 167.8 million shares, which represents 1.6% of the company’s float.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) saw a 10.8% drop in short interest to 51.42 million shares, which represents about 1.8% of the firm’s float.

Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: ANR) showed a rise of 4.8% in short interest, to 29.19 million shares, about 13.4% of Alpha’s float.

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) showed a drop of 2.8% in short interest, to 11 million shares, about 1.1% of the company’s float.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) saw short interest rise by 0.3% to 20.01 million shares, or 2.1% of the company’s float.

BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) saw short interest rise by 5.6% to 164.34 million shares, or 33.2% of the total float. Short interest continues to be reported under the company’s previous name, Research in Motion Ltd., but the stock symbol has been changed to BBRY.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) posted a 9.9% rise in short interest, to 118.71 million shares, about 1.6% of Microsoft’s float.

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) short interest declined by 18.7%, to 24.09 million shares or about 1.6% of the company’s float.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) saw short interest decrease by 6.3% to 32.25 million shares or 26.5% of the company’s float.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) saw short interest rise by 7.7% to 58 million shares or about 1.1% of the company’s float.

Short interest in Dell has declined by double-digit percentages for the past two reports. Competition to the bid from Michael Dell and his partners, once believed to be strong enough to push the stock price higher, had begun to evaporate a few weeks ago and now that one competitive bidder has withdrawn the shares trade once again right around the level of the original take-private bid.

Short interest in Microsoft was rising following reports on weakness in the PC market. The shorts likely will have bailed out by the next short interest report, now that the company has posted solid earnings for the first quarter.

And in the smartphone market, the drop in Nokia’s short interest could indicate that traders see the company getting some benefit from Apple’s perceived woes. BlackBerry, where a third of the shares are now short, has few believers left in its ability to recover.