The number of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares sold short continued to dwindle in early June. However, it was not like in late May, when short sellers got spooked and the short interest in the company dropped 21%.
In the period that ended June 15, Apple short interest fell 1.9% from the previous period to nearly 60.50 million shares. Forecasts and announcements about product or services at the recent Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) could be part of the reason short sellers are shying away. Apple unveiled its new streaming music service, Apple Music, at the conference. It will be interesting to see how the battle in music streaming will shake out, but ultimately it will come down to the music libraries, owned customers subscribed and the artists licensed by each company, all areas in which Apple has a leg up.
By and large, analysts were positive on Apple’s prospects after the WWDC, even if not all were wildly enthusiastic.
The total short position in Apple is 13th among all Nasdaq-traded stocks, just shy of Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) and Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: MU), which each had a little more than 63 million shares short. Some would argue that the Apple short position is only symbolic as far as sentiment about the company goes. It is only 1.1% of Apple’s total share float. However, investors do use short interest as a primary means to bet on the future. And Apple continues to do things on which it is worth gambling.
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