As the rough first quarter wound to a close, it appeared that the markets were finally headed north again. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 had returned to the black for the year, though the Nasdaq still lagged. And the interest in the five most heavily shorted stocks traded on the Nasdaq declined between the March 15 and March 31 settlement dates. Leading that trend was AMD, with a double-digit percentage fall in the number of its shares short in the period.
Note that the four most shorted Nasdaq stocks still had more than 110 million shares short by the end of the period.
The more than 163.16 million Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) shares short at the end of March was less than 2% lower than on the previous settlement date, which had seen the highest level of short interest in the past year. The most recent reading was 8.5% of the company’s float. At the current average daily volume, it would take more than six days to cover all short positions. Looking for growth, Sirius has turned its attention to the used car market. The share price ended the two-week period less than 2% higher, though it has retreated another 2% or so since then. The stock ended Monday at $3.81 a share, within a 52-week trading range of $3.29 to $4.20.
For the third period in a row, the short interest in Frontier Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: FTR) has dropped, most recently about 4% to more than 157.69 million shares. That was 13.6% of the telecom’s float, as of the most recent settlement date. The days to cover grew to about 12 as the average daily volume fell to a year-to-date low. Merrill Lynch recently saw Frontier’s dividend as safe. Shares ended the short interest period up more than 8%, while the Nasdaq rose about 3% in that time. The share price still is up more than 12% year to date. The stock closed most recently at $5.24, within a 52-week range of $3.81 to $7.50.
24/7 Wall St.Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.
Editors' Picks
