Twitter

Twitter Inc. (TWTR US) short interest is $1.45 billion, with 44.29 million shares short, for 6.46% of the available float. The stock loan fee 0.30%, it is a General Collateral stock (easiest to borrow stocks & bonds with the cheapest rates.) TWTR is the third most shorted stock in the Interactive Media & Services Sector behind Facebook & (FB US) Google (GOOGL US.)

Twitter Inc. (TWTR) reported strong 4^th quarter results with revenues up 2%, monthly active users up 4%, ad revenues up 1% and positive 4^th quarter cash flows of $135 million. Twitter’s stock price responded by hitting $31.51 on Friday, topping the $30 level for the first time since late 2015. Twitter’s stock price was up +21.57% for the week, to the dismay of $1.3 billion of short sellers.

It’s been all good news hitting the tape for Twitter (TWTR US) lately, which is resulting in shorts trimming back their bearish bets against the company on a share basis. Last week, Q1 earnings beat street estimates, sending shares up 5%. Yesterday, the company announced a partnership with Bloomberg for a 24-hour news network, sending shares up another 6%. Today, Mark Cuban disclosed that he has started to go long shares of the online news and networking service in his portfolio as an artificial intelligence play, pushing the shares up another 4%.

Twitter Inc. (TWTR US) short interest has been on a roller coaster ride in 2016 levels going from $1.3 billion at the end of 2015 to under $800 million in February 2016 and back up to $1.2 billion by mid-August. Short interest fell again as Twitter’s stock price hit a year to date high on October 5^th of $24.87 on takeover rumors linking them with a variety of suitors, short balances fell to $820 million by October 10^th as the price increase squeezed out almost $300 million of short positions.

Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT US) purchase of LinkedIn Corp (LNKD US) for $26.2 billion; successful live steaming of NFL games; a declining rate of user growth since 2011; and a stock price that was down 44% in 2014, down 35% in 2015 and down 19.5% in 2016 before today’s price spike all contributed to Twitter’s (TWTR US) determined search for a buyer\partner for its online social networking and blogging service.

Shares of Twitter (TWTR US) are down close to 6% today on the back of the company claiming it has “no bids on the table” to be acquired. Traders have been speculating since mid-year that the social networking behemoth will be a takeover target, contributing to the 30% pop in price since June.