Short Sellers Favor Marvell Technology, Qualcomm Among Semiconductor Stocks

• Short interest moves in the leading semiconductor stocks were mixed in the most recent period.
• Two stocks in particular stood out among those that saw rising short interest.
• Shares of both of these stocks rose at least 7 percent during the two-week period.

Short interest moves in the leading semiconductor-related stocks were mixed in late May as the markets reached for year-to-date highs, although the upswings tended to be sharper than the downswings.

Between the May 13 and May 31 settlement dates, Marvell Technology Group Ltd. MRVL and QUALCOMM, Inc. QCOM saw the greatest surges in the number of their shares short, in a period in which the former made some management changes and rumors had the latter eyeing an acquisition, possibly of NXP or Xilinx.

Short sellers also piled on Applied Materials, Lam Research, Linear Technology, ON Semiconductor and Skyworks Solutions in the period, driving their short interest up by double-digit percentages as well.

More modest rises were seen in Advanced Micro Devices, ARM Holdings, Microchip Technology, Texas Instruments and Xilinx, while the number of shares short in NXP Semiconductors and Qorvo hardly changed at all between the settlement dates.

The final weeks of the month brought shrinking numbers of shares short at Analog Devices, Broadcom, Cypress Semiconductor, Intel, Maxim Integrated Products, Micron Technology and NVIDIA.

Below is a quick look at how Marvell and Qualcomm have fared recently and what is expected from them.

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Marvell

This Bermuda-based maker of integrated circuits for mobile communications saw its short interest bounce about 22 percent from the year-to-date low in the previous period to around 7.02 million shares. That was 22.0 percent of float, and it would take less than two days to cover all short positions.

Marvell announced a new director, chief legal officer and marketing EVP during the period. Short sellers watched the shares rise more than 7 percent during the two-week short interest period, compared to a less than 5 percent gain in the Nasdaq. The stock is up more than 11 percent year-to-date.

Qualcomm

The number of shares sold short in this San Diego-based digital communications products provider surged almost 22 percent late in the month to nearly 22.29 million, or 1.5 percent of the float. That was the fourth period in a row of rising short interest, and the days to cover was more than two, a year-to-date high.

Qualcomm recently announced a multi-year joint venture with Medtronic. Qualcomm shares ended the latest short interest period up more than 7 percent, though they were up about 9 percent at one point during those two weeks. This stock has pulled back about 2 percent since the settlement date.

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities.

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