Stephen Silver
S3 Partners says Apple was the most shorted company at $9.8 billion, ahead of Amazon, Tesla, and Alphabet- but it may be a function of Apple's prominence and high valuation.
According to S3 Partners, as cited by the Daily Telegraph, Apple was shorted by a total of $9.8 billion as of Monday, the most of any U.S. company. Amazon was second at $9.6 billion, followed by Tesla, Alphabet, Netflix, Microsoft and Facebook.
The report comes shortly before Apple is scheduled to announce a wave of new products, including three iPhones and most likely an Apple Watch.
However, the short-selling probably should not be looked at as any kind of sign of trouble for Apple, or of any lack of confidence about the products about to be introduced.
Apple's stock, despite a dip over the weekend driven by tariff comments from President Trump, remains strong. Its market cap remains over $1 trillion, and various analysts this week have raised their price targets for the company.
One thing notable about all of the the stocks on the most-shorted lists is that they're all extremely high-profile companies, they're all in the tech sector, and they all trade at huge volumes. Those stocks are certainly going to be traded — and shorted — at a higher volume than those of more obscure companies.
For Apple, $9.8 billion being shorted may sound like a large amount, but it's also a tiny fraction of the company's market cap, which currently stands at $1.08 trillion.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
20 Comments
Apple shorted? Do people want to gamble on the most valuable company? Sure it will probably go down, but they are also months from that given its fall.
I suspect the short-sellers are going to lose some money...personally i prefer to be on the same side as Berkshire Hathaway over the long term
I have a feeling it is going to be a blowout quarter...everyone i know is looking to buy some Apple product as a reult of the announcement tomorrow whether it is an iPhone, AppleWatch, new AirPods or an iPad.
Makes more sense to evaluate as a percentage of market cap rather than actual short value otherwise the most valuable companies will always be high up on the list.
We’ll probably hear Buffet bought another chunk of AAPL when it was pressured downward this past week.