Big Swings in Chip Stocks’ Short Interest (INTC, AMD, QCOM, ARMH, MU, SNDK, BRCM, MRVL, NVDA, TXN, AMAT, SMH)

We have tracked the key short interest changes as of August 24th in the following semiconductor leaders: Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD), Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU), SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH), Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL), Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA), Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) and Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT). We also chose to look at how the Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (NYSEMKT: SMH) has held up.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) rose 4% to 152.4 million shares in mid-August. This is the highest total in a year for Intel, and days to cover popped to 5.58. About 3% of Intel’s float is now short.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) saw short interest rise 6.6% to 93 million shares, 18% of the company’s total float.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) short interest rose 15.5% to 17 million shares, which represents just 1% of the company’s float.

ARM Holdings plc (NASDAQ: ARMH) saw a 17% jump in short interest to 6.9 million shares, which represents about 1.5% of the firm’s float.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) showed a drop of more than 4% in short interest, to 67.3 million shares, about 8.6% of Micron’s float. Days to cover rose to a 2012 high of 2.61.

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) saw short interest fall by 15.8% to 9.6 million shares, or 4.6% of the company’s float.

Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) saw short interest rise by 8.6% to 7.6 million shares, or 1.5% of the total float.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) posted a drop of 1.8% in short interest, to 5.4 million shares, about 1.1% of Marvell’s float.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) short interest fell about 2.8% since the end of July, to 10.6 million shares or about 2.1% of the company’s float.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) saw short interest rise by 12.2% to 18.4 million shares or 1.6% of the company’s float.

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) saw the largest gain in the two-week period, with short interest rising 34.4% to 17.6 million shares or about 1.4% of the company’s float. The company lowered its forecast about two weeks ago and shares have been pummeled since.

The Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (NYSEMKT: SMH) closed at $33.06 on the same date above and its 52-week range is currently $28.86 to 36.17.

Paul Ausick