How Many Facebook Inc (FB) Investors Are Short?

Nowadays, there are tons of metrics for Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) investors to watch, but it’s useful to be aware of a stock’s shorts. A couple metrics typically used are: (a) the fraction of a stock’s float that the shorts are currently short selling, plus (b) the difference in short interest.

Increased bearish shorting usually means what it implies: Wall Street has become less bullish on that particular stock. Overselling, though, sometimes has a positive effect on stock price, as short-ers may be forced to buy their positions.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)Within Insider Monkey, it is not a secret that we watch hedge funds’ sentiment, but it is eqaully as crucial to group this data with aggregate short interest data. In some high-profile cases, large investors may share that they’re bearish on a stock, but it is not an SEC requirement. Nevertheless, some retail investors may wish to stay away from heavily short sold companies with elevated hedgie support, while others may desire short-squeeze candidates. For readers looking for a market-beating piggybacking strategy, discover the details of our premium strategy.

Without further ado, let’s take a gander at the latest data surrounding Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB).

Studying the newest FINRA short interest data, which is released twice a month, we can realize that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has a short interest of 2.20% of float. This represents a -8% change from the prior filing period. With a float of 1.48B shares, this reveals a short ratio of 0.60.

Also, insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time period, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 9 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out activity in other stocks similar to Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). These stocks are Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), and Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU). This group of stocks are the members of the internet information providers industry and their market caps resemble FB’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) 19 0 0
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) 159 0 8
LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) 45 0 13
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) 66 0 3
Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) 34 0 0

This duo of metrics–short sale information and insider sentiment–is something all investors should pay attention to. Though it is hard to discover a practical strategy from short interest data, hedgie and insider sentiment give plenty of market beating opportunities if you know where to look.