Chip Stocks’ Short Interest Follows Same Pattern (INTC, AMD, QCOM, ARMH, MU, SNDK, BRCM, MRVL, NVDA, TXN, AMAT, SMH)

We have tracked the key short interest changes as of August 31st 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) short interest fell 1.9% to 172.76 million shares. About 3.5% of Intel’s float is now short.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) saw short interest rise 9.5% to 120.95 million shares, 20.2% of the company’s total float. Short interest in AMD rose more than 11% at the end of August as news about the faltering PC business hit the weakest firm the hardest.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) short interest fell 7.4% to 17.39 million shares, which represents just 1% of the company’s float.

ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH) saw a 1.3% rise in short interest to 6.7 million shares, which represents about 1.5% of the firm’s float.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) showed a decline of 9% in short interest, to 62.79 million shares, about 6.2% of Micron’s float.

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) saw short interest rise by 3.6% to 9.98 million shares, or 4.1% of the company’s float.

Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) saw short interest rise by 10.9% to 6.4 million shares, or 1.3% of the total float.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) posted an 18.4% decline in short interest, to 5.91 million shares, about 1.3% of Marvell’s float. At the end of August short interest in Marvell rose by more than 34%, so this may just be a correction.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) short interest rose by a stupendous 56.6%, to 14.9 million shares or about 2.5% of the company’s float. The company was hit by the resignation of its chief mobile chip designer, an analyst’s downgrade, and the weak Intel forecast.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) saw short interest rise by 3.9% to 20.12 million shares or 1.8% of the company’s float.

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) saw short interest rising 3.8% to 19.21 million shares or about 1.6% of the company’s float.

The Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (NYSEMKT: SMH) showed a drop of 5% in short interest to 4.97 million shares.

Most chip stocks have been hit by weak forecasts for PC shipments. Companies that manufacture parts for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have fared better, although Nvidia got clobbered by a near-perfect storm of bad news. Marvell, which makes controller chips for hard drives, recovered from a huge jump in short interest in the final two weeks of August.

Paul Ausick