Microsoft’s (MSFT) Short Interest Down Significantly In November

Recent short interest data for the 11/28/2014 settlement date shows a decrease in short interest for shares of Microsoft Corporation (MSFT). As of November 28, the short interest for the software giant totaled 67,099,529 shares, as compared to 87,933,746 shares since November 14, a decline of 23.69%. Average daily volume [AVM] for the same period rose by 1,960,752 to 28,558,831 shares from 26,598,079 shares. It is worth mentioning that ticker’s short interest has dropped by more than 56M shares, or 50%, from the 9/30/2014 settlement date.

Based on the latest AVM, the days-to-cover ratio — a metric that includes both the total shares short and the average daily volume of shares traded — is currently 2.35 days. Days-to-cover for MSFT decreased to 2.35 for the November 28 settlement date, as compared to 3.31 days at the November 14 report.

Recently, a number of Wall Street firms have assigned a rating to the stock. Analysts at Piper Jaffray initiated coverage with an ‘Overweight’ rating and a $54 price target in a research note on December 12th. Jefferies analysts started coverage of the stock, assigning ‘Underperform’ rating and $40 price target in a research note to clients on November 20th. Finally, analysts at Citigroup (C) maintained a ‘Neutral’ rating on Microsoft with a $50, 12-month base case estimate in a research note on November 18th. Overall, there are 11 analysts that rate MSFT a ‘Buy’, while 16 rate it a ‘Hold’. 2 analysts rate it ‘Underperform’. No analyst rates the name a ‘Sell’. MSFT has a median Wall Street price target of $51 with a high target of $58.

Microsoft Corporation has a beta of 0.69 and a short float of 0.88%. In the past 12 months, shares of Redmond, Washington-based company have traded between a low of $34.63 and a high of $50.05 and are now at $46.95. Shares are up 29.59% year-over-year and 28.95% year-to-date.

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