Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s Short Interest Declined First Two Weeks of December

Well for starters, Apple’s total short percentage of float (via Yahoo! Finance) is still a minuscule 2.2%, far below the traditional danger zone for most stocks, i.e. above at least 20%. Even though Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s short interest has been growing of late, we still have a long way to go before the selling can have a material effect on the stock’s price.

By comparison, competitors like Google (1.7%) and Microsoft (1.4%) have a slightly less elevated short percentage of float, still far below what we’ve seen in Zynga (8.4%), Pandora (52.6%), and Netflix (26.7%).

Of these five competitors, only the latter two have a meaningful level of short interest, and of those two, Pandora may actually be a short squeeze candidate.

In Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s case, this data also indicates that not many investors were shorting the stock back in late September, before its near-25% selloff.

Due to the fact that hedge funds and other investment managers are not required by the SEC to disclosure their short positions, it’s impossible to pinpoint exactly who is short Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), but the latest data tells us that roughly $9.5 billion worth of bearish positions are being held at the moment.

Interestingly, famed short seller Jim Chanos mentioned earlier this year that he was “afraid of heights” in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) when it traded in the upper 600s, but didn’t say anything about actually being short on the stock.

Let us know your thoughts on Apple in the comments section below, and if you could’ve seen yourself shorting the stock before its latest selloff. Be honest.

For more Apple coverage, continue reading below:

Why I Didn’t Buy Apple: Jim Chanos

Tiger Global Loves Apple

One Simple Fact Many Apple Investors Are Forgetting