Bank of America Corp (BAC) Short-Sellers Are Making Moves

In today’s market place, there are plenty of tools for Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) readers to track, but it is key to take note of a company’s short sellers. Some pieces of data we can use are: (a) the chunk of a company’s float that bears are presently short selling, in addition to (b) the difference in short selling activity.

Heightened bearish shorting typically indicates what it implies: the Street has grown less bullish on that particular stock. Short selling that’s too high, though, may have a positive effect on stock price, as the shorts can be forced to buy their stock.

Within Insider Monkey, it’s not a secret that we pay attention to hedgies’ interest, but it’s eqaully as important to pair this information with aggregate short interest information. In some high-profile cases, mega- players could disclose that they’re bearish on a certain stock, but it is not an SEC requirement. Nonetheless, many retail players might wish to stay away from heavily shorted stocks with above-average hedgie investment, while others might want short-squeeze candidates. For traders wanting a market-beating piggybacking strategy, discover the details of our premium strategy.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the latest data pertaining to Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC).

Analyzing the newest FINRA short interest data, which is released two times each month, we can discover that Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) sports a short interest of 1.50% of float. This indicates a slight drop from the previous month. With a float of 10.77B shares, this represents a short ratio of 1.20.

It is also beneficial to keep an eye on hedge fund holdings via their 13F forms. According to our data, Fairholme (FAIRX), managed by Bruce Berkowitz, holds the biggest position in Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC). Fairholme (FAIRX) has a $1.2252 billion position in the stock, comprising 15.6% of its 13F portfolio. In the second spot is Paul Ruddock and Steve Heinz of Lansdowne Partners, with a $465.4 million position; 6.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Kerr Neilson’s Platinum Asset Management, Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management.

Also, insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is best served when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) has seen 1 unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine activity in other stocks similar to Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC). These stocks are Toronto-Dominion Bank (USA) (NYSE:TD), Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (ADR) (NYSE:MTU), Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C). All of these stocks are in the money center banks industry and their market caps are similar to BAC’s market cap.

These three figures–short interest info, hedge fund holdings and insiders’ behavior–are something every reader should pay attention to. Although it’s hard to formulate a discernable strategy from short selling data, hedge fund and insider sentiment provide plenty of market beating opportunities if you know where to look.