Cree, Inc. (CREE) Short-Sellers Are Making Moves

In the financial blogosphere, there are plenty of facts and figures for Cree, Inc. (NASDAQ:CREE) readers to keep an eye on, but it is smart to be aware of a stock’s short sellers. A couple metrics we can use are: (a) the chunk of a stock’s shares that short sellers are presently selling, plus (b) the difference in shorting activity.

Augmented bearish shorting usually means what it implies: Wall Street has become less bullish on that particular stock. Short selling that’s too high, however, may have a positive effect on stock price, as the shorts can be forced to buy their positions.

Within our database, it is no secret that we watch hedge fund sentiment, but it is also important to combine this information with overall short information. A few, mega- investors could share that they’re short on a company, but it’s not an SEC requirement. Nonetheless, some retail investors may wish to avoid highly shorted companies with high hedgie support, while others may desire short-squeeze opportunities. For those searching for a time-tested piggybacking strategy, discover the details of our premium strategy.

With that in mind, let’s take a glance at the key data surrounding Cree, Inc. (NASDAQ:CREE).

Studying the most recent FINRA data, which is released twice monthly, we can see that Cree, Inc. (NASDAQ:CREE) sports a short interest of 11.20% of float. This indicates a -12.3% change from the prior two-week period. With a total float of 114.84M shares, this reveals a short ratio of 4.00.

It is also beneficial to monitor hedge fund holdings via their 13F forms. Of the funds we track, Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors had the biggest position in Cree, Inc. (NASDAQ:CREE), worth close to $140 million, accounting for 1.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The 2nd biggest stake is held by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell of Arrowstreet Capital, with a $61.7 million position; the fund has 0.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Paul Reeder and Edward Shapiro’s PAR Capital Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Also, bullish insider trading is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time frame, Cree, Inc. (NASDAQ:CREE) has seen 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over activity in other stocks similar to Cree, Inc. (NASDAQ:CREE). These stocks are KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC), United Microelectronics Corp (ADR) (NYSE:UMC), Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS), Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX), and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ADR) (NYSE:ASX). This group of stocks belong to the semiconductor equipment & materials industry and their market caps are closest to CREE’s market cap.

The aforementioned figures–short data, hedge fund info and insider trading history–are something all readers should track. Though it’s difficult to discover a discernable strategy from short sale data, the latter two provide lots of market beating opportunities if you know where to look.