Short interest data is used by investors to figure out the direction a particular stock is likely to take. It can be compared over a period of time to show how investor sentiment has altered. Thus, it is a sentiment indicator.
Short interest has fallen for these three stocks: Mizuho Financial Group (NYSE:MFG), United Microelectronics (ADR) (NYSE:UMC), and Columbia Pipeline LP (NYSE:CPPL)
Mizuho Financial Group (NYSE:MFG) has fallen in terms of its short interest by -63.5%. It had 231,169 shares (volume). Zero is the days to cover; that number remained for the company. Shares went up by around -0.47% over one month and stayed up at about 24.63% through its price recently at market of about $4.25.
As for United Microelectronics (ADR) (NYSE:UMC), it declined by around -71.6%. As of July 31 of this year, 12,464,513 shares in the stock were short (as per wsj.com). That number depleted from 43,844,353 shares from the middle of the month (July 15).
Short sellers have sold stocks with the intention to then buy them back at a lower price, return them to lender, and earn from the difference in pricing between those two. Days to cover was at 8. Over the past five days, share price declined by -2.78%; it has traded at around $1.71 to $2.55 over the last 52 weeks.
Regarding the third stock, Columbia Pipeline LP (NYSE:CPPL), it has declined greatly in short interest. The short interest was at 399,799 shares on July 31 of this year, which was down -61.4% from mid-July (July 15, 2015), when it was a sum of 1,036,173 shares (as per wsj.com). As for days to cover, that stayed at one.
Days to cover shows a measurement of a company’s issued shorted shares. If you hear the phrase SIR, that means the short interest ratio for a public company.