Apple Short Interest Surges by Over 6 Million Shares

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 4:45AM EST · Published Aug 10, 8:45AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Apple Short Interest Surges by Over 6 Million Shares — © Thinkstock

[cnxvideo id=”655354″ placement=”ros”]With a modestly positive earnings report behind them, skeptics about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) have increased the number of shares of the stock sold short by 6.4 million to 50.9 million, an increase of almost 15% for the period that ended July 29. None of the top 15 Nasdaq companies by short interest size had such a large increase.

Over the past month, Apple’s share price has risen 12% to $108. However, with a 3% increase this year, it has not matched the rise in the Nasdaq. Apple remains the company with the world’s largest market cap, at $586 billion.

The company’s most recent quarterly earnings were not bad. For the quarter that ended June 25:

The Company posted quarterly revenue of $42.4 billion and quarterly net income of $7.8 billion, or $1.42 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $49.6 billion and net income of $10.7 billion, or $1.85 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 38 percent compared to 39.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 63 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

[nativounit]

Guidance was light:

Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2016 fourth quarter:

revenue between $45.5 billion and $47.5 billion

gross margin between 37.5 percent and 38 percent

operating expenses between $6.05 billion and $6.15 billion

other income/(expense) of $350 million

tax rate of 25.5 percent

Apple’s success continues to rely on two things: China and the iPhone 7. In the past quarter, Greater China sales fell 33% to $8.8 billion. Several research firms have shown Apple’s share of the market has dropped below those of Samsung and local smartphone manufacturers.

Then there is the iPhone 7, which is expected to be released in September. Early speculation says the phone will have two cameras, no port for headphones and a dozen other features that cannot be confirmed or denied. What is almost certain is that the phone is not a revolution within the industry as earlier versions were. That leaves the Apple brand to carry success over competitors, mostly Samsung. That is not much to rely on anymore.

[wallst_email_signup]

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.