- Hazeltree came out with its list of most shorted stocks for January.
- Several tech stocks made the list, including Apple and Supermicro.
- IBM, AMD and Micron dropped off the list.
Micron (NASDAQ:MU), AMD (NASDAQ:AMD), and IBM (NYSE:IBM) all fell of the list.
Some of the leading technology stocks in the world are among those that are shorted the most by hedge funds and short sellers.
Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:SMCI), MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR), and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) were among the 10 most shorted stocks, according to financial data firm Hazeltree and its January Shortside Crowdedness Report.
In the U.S. large-cap category, ticket seller Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE:LYV) remained the most shorted stock for the second straight month along with WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC), Chevron (NYSE:CVX), and Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR). All four of those stocks had crowdedness scores of 99.
The Hazeltree crowdedness score represents securities that are being shorted by the highest percentage of funds on a scale of 1-99.
The second most shorted large caps were AI server manufacturer Super Micro Computer and the largest corporate owner of Bitcoin MicroStrategy, which is now being called Strategy. Both had scores of 96.
Super Micro Computer also had Hazeltree’s highest institutional supply utilization rating for the second month in a row with a rating of 51.03%. This figure gauges the percentage of the supply of a particular security that is being lent out by institutional investors. It is an indicator of how “hot” a security is in terms of the supply-demand dynamic.
Apple Makes List Again, IBM Falls Off
Rounding out the top 10 were four stocks with scores of 93 – Apple, software company Synopsys (NASDAQ:SNPS), banking giant Capital One (NYSE:COF) and industrial firm Air Products and Chemicals (NYSE:APD).
Last month, Apple was the most shorted large-cap stock, so it moved down in the rankings. Also, IBM, Micron Technology, and AMD dropped out of the top 10 after making the list last month.
“The tech sector continued to ride a wave of investor enthusiasm from December, which included short-sellers who gravitated to large-cap security names such as Apple and Super Micro,” Tim Smith, managing director of data insights at Hazeltree, said. “We observed the re-emergence of past 2024 crowded large caps such as Chevron and Super Micro Computer, which were among January’s most crowded shorted securities with a score of 99.”
Overall, when an investor shorts a stock, they seek to profit off an expected decline in the asset. So, it is likely that many of these popular tech names are on the list because investors see them as overvalued or facing some type of near-term headwind.
The most shorted mid-cap stock was chemical company Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) with a score of 99 followed by retailer Wayfair (NYSE:W) at 96. Satellite maker AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) had the highest institutional supply utilization (ISU) rating at 77.57%.
Among small-caps, semiconductor firm Wolfspeed (NYSE:WOLF) remained the most shorted small-cap for the sixth straight month with a score of 99, followed by Xerox (NASDAQ:XRX) at 96. Wolfspeed also had the highest ISU at 60.45%.
In the EMEA, Kering was the most shorted large-cap stock with a score of 99 followed by Universal Music Group at 90 and HSBC Holdings (NYSE:HSBC) at 85.