Key Points
Apple was the stock that was the most shorted out in December by hedge fund managers.
Several other big tech stocks were on the list, including IBM and AMD.
H&M was the shortest inventory in EMEA.
And one of the most shorted stocks of 2024 fell off the list in December.
According to a new report from Data and Analytics Firm Hazeltree, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) was the most shorted inventory in December by hedge fund managers.
The monthly Hazeltree Shortside Cloud Report examines the US, EMEA, and APAC stocks, where alternative assets and hedge fund managers have the most shortest shorts. That range includes large, medium and small caps.
When investors cut stocks, they believe the price will fall, so they try to make a profit from it. This is a general strategy deployed by hedge fund managers.
In December, Apple shared a massive US stock distinction with ticket sales operator Live Nation (NYSE: LYV). Apple and Live Nation had a Hazeltree Crowdendes Scores 99 score on a 1-99 scale.
“This score represents securities that are shorted in categories that have the highest percentage of funding in Hazeltree communities,” the report states. “Securities are rated on a scale of 1-99, with 99 representing security that the highest percentage of funds is short-circuited.”
IBM, AMD, and Supermicro create lists
There were several other technical stocks in the list of the most shorted-circuit stocks, including IBM (NYSE: IBM). IBM had a score of 96 along with Chevron (NYSE: CVX).
After that, Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), Tech Firm Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI), and Cable Company Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR) were 90. Semiconductor companies Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) and Boeing (NYSE: BA) scored 87, followed by Albemarle Corp. (NYSE: ALB) scored 84.
Furthermore, Supermicro had the highest institutional supply utilization of Hazeltree 41.8%. This metric represents the percentage of institutional investors’ supply to the specific security being loaned out. It shows that security is “hot” in terms of supply and demand dynamics.
There was one notable absence from the list. There was Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), one of the short-circuit stocks of 2024.
“In December, half of the largest US cap securities that were short-circuited were technical names, including Tech Titans such as Apple, IBM, AMD,” said Tim Smith, director of data insights at Hazeltree. “A significant lack of in the list of top 10 securities was Tesla, the top of most lists in 2024. Also, H&M’s returns are the most with the highest institutional supply utilization in the APAC small cap category. I thought it was a busy EMEA large cap security and Renova.
The shortest smallest and intermediate caps
The report also examined the top 10 most short-circuit intermediate and small caps. In the US, Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) tops the list with a score of 99 among the midcaps. .
Among the small caps, Wolfspeed (NYSE: Wolf) scored the highest score for the fifth consecutive time, earning 99. Semiconductor companies also had the highest supply utilization rate at 57.23%.
At EMEA, H&M was the largest cap with the short circuit. Additionally, there was the highest facility supply utilization rate at 75.67%.
In the mid-cap category, Alstom was the busiest security with a score of 99, while Neste Oyj had the highest institutional supply utilization rate at 25.98%.
Finally, among the small caps, the SSP Group PLC, Hays PLC, Basic Fit NV, and Alphawave IP Group PLC are 99. AirFrance-KLM SA was the busiest securities leading the use of facility supply at a rate of 91.45%.
The data comes from Hazeltree’s own securities finance platform data, tracking around 15,000 global stocks across the US, EMEA and APAC. This data has been tallied and anonymized from the contribution Hazeltree community of approximately 700 asset manager funds.
