Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares witnessed a decline in short interest in the month of November. As of Nov. 14, short interest totaled nearly 74.5 million shares, a decline of 25.2% from the Oct. 31 total of about 99.6 million shares. Of the total shares, around 1.3% are sold short.
Analysts confident on Apple
Many analysts have come out with their verdict on Apple stock in recent times. Barclays analysts have increased their price target on Apple shares from $120 to $140 in a research note to investors on Monday and have assigned an Overweight rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus analysts increased their price target on the stock from $115 to $130 in a research note to investors on Nov. 25 and assigned a Buy rating to the stock. Susquehanna analysts raised their price target on Apple from $120 to $135 in a research note to investors on Nov. 24. Apple presently has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $114.22.
In separate news, SVP Craig Federighi offloaded 81,543 shares of Apple in a transaction on Nov. 24. The company’s shareswere offloaded at an average price of $116.81 for a total value of about $9.5 million, according to a filing with the SEC.
Sudden price decline on Monday
The iPhone maker’s shares dropped dramatically during Monday’s trading session, which was the largest drop in at least three months. Volume was high before 9:51 a.m. EST with more than 6.7 million shares traded in a one minute stretch, according to Reuters. The stock tumbled by over 3% in that minute, dropping as much as 6.4% to $111.27. At mid-afternoon, it was down 3% to $115.45.
There was a sharp decline in the share price along with high volume, suggesting high frequency trading (HFT) in which computer algorithms are used to trade at a very fast pace. The oil market spill could also be a probable factor for heavy selling in Apple. Traders stated that there was a need for more liquidity in the market as oil and energy shares affected others in the market.
Apart from Apple, a similar decline was noticed in other stocks, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, which declined 1.4% during the one minute. On Monday, the S&P 500 tracking ETF had its busiest minute of trading at 9:51 a.m. with almost 1.5 million shares trading.
