Chip Stocks See Big Moves in Short Interest (INTC, AMD, MU, QCOM, BRCM, MRVL, NVDA, TXN)

The July 31st short interest reports for some of the big semiconductor makers are mixed, although the swings are quite large in most cases.

We looked at eight stocks: Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD), Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU), Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL), Nvdia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN).

Short interest in Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) rose 12.4% to 146.24 million shares, the second-biggest gain since the beginning of the year. Since the end of April, short interest has jumped 44% in the world’s largest chipmaker.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) saw short interest rise by 6.7% to 93 million shares. That represents 15.7% of the company’s float.

At Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU), short interest rose 15.3% to 70.5 million shares. That’s the largest number of shares short in the past 12 months.

Short interest in Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) fell 10.5% to 14.8 million shares, the lowest total for the company since mid-March.

Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) saw short interest fall 6.6% to 7.05 million shares, the third straight decline since a jump of nearly 41% in mid-June.

For Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL), short interest fell 4% to 5.5 million shares, which means the company’s days to cover is less than 1, the same as Broadcom.

Nvdia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) saw short interest fall 10.3% to 10.93 million shares, still about 18% higher than the 2012 low of 8.9 million shares in mid-June.

Short interest in Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) fell the most of this group — down 20% — to 16.4 million shares, the biggest drop in short interest since the end of January.

Paul Ausick