Among the leading semiconductor stocks, Altera (NASDAQ: ALTR), Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) and Xilinx (NASDAQ: XLNX) saw the most significant downswings in short interest between the March 31 and April 15 settlement dates.
Short sellers also retreated from Applied Materials, ARM Holdings, Avago Technologies, Intel, KLA-Tencor, Micron Technology, NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments in the first two weeks of the month.
Short interest in Cirrus Logic, Lam Research and Linear Technology was essentially the same as in the previous period. The number of shares sold short of Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom, Maxim Integrated Products and STMicroelectronics increased during the period.
Below we take a closer look at how Altera, Marvell Technology and Xilinx have fared and what analysts expect from them.
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Altera
Short interest in this San Jose, California-based company decreased about 22 percent to more than 5.16 million shares in the period. That was more than one percent of the float, as well as the lowest number of shares short since January. It would take less than two days to cover all short positions.
Altera reported better-than-expected quarterly results, but after period ended. The company has a market capitalization of less than $11 billion and a dividend yield near 1.7 percent. This S&P 500 component has a return on equity of about 16 percent and an operating margin that is better than he industry average.
More than half of the 27 analysts surveyed by Thomson/First Call recommend buying shares. Their mean price target, or where analysts expect the share price to go, is more than 15 percent higher than the current share price. Shares have not traded in that neighborhood since last September.
The share price is down almost eight percent in the past month and currently well below the 50-day and the 200-day moving averages. The stock has not only underperformed the broader markets over the past six months, but competitors Linear Technology and Xlinx as well.
Marvell Technology
Short interest in this Bermuda-based company was more than 66 percent lower than in the previous period, falling from more than 10.41 million to nearly 3.49 million shares. That was the smallest number of shares short in at least a year, and it represented about one percent of the total float.
This integrated circuits maker has a market cap of about $8 billion and a dividend yield near 1.5 percent. During the period, Marvell was ordered to pay $1.5 billion in damages from a patent suit. The company has a long-term earnings per share (EPS) growth forecast of more than 11 percent, but the return on equity is about seven percent.