Big Short Interest On These 5 Biotech Stocks

Rumor has it that if the S&P 500 finishes its first five trading days of the year with a gain, then the year in question will -- 80 percent of the time -- end with a gain as well.

Last Thursday, January 8’s rally gave the S&P that five-day gain; just barely, but it was a gain nonetheless. However, since that day, the market has seen a decent amount of weakness.

The biotech arena continues to be a strong one, even in the face of that recent market weakness, but some biotech names are starting to see steady increases in short interest.

Investors looking to get short a few biotech names in preparation for a potential sell-off might find interest in the biotech stocks that have the highest level of short interest.

On the other hand, those looking for a “short squeeze” to get long in a few biotechs might have interest in the same stocks.

Below is a list of the top five biotech stocks with the highest short interest as a percentage of shares outstanding.

Related Link: The Struggles Of Gilead Sciences

5^th Place: Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

The biotech stock with the fifth highest level of short interest would be Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. AEGR.

 

Aegerion’s short interest currently sits at a little over 25 percent of shares outstanding. The stock closed at $22.13 January 9 and is trading around $22.44 at the time of this writing.

2^nd Place: Triple Tie

Exact Sciences There is essentially a 3-way tie for second place, starting with Exact Sciences Corporation EXAS.

Exact Sciences is approaching its 52-week high after closing out on Friday, January 9 at $29.16/share. It is currently trading around $27.15 at the time of this writing.

Sarepta Therapeutics Next in the 3-way tie would be Sarepta Therapeutics Inc SRPT.

Sarepta simply looks like a stock few are interested in being long in. The stock is starting the week at $13.95/share and is at the time of this article trading around $11.88.

Amag Pharmaceuticals The third member of the 3-way tie comes from Amag Pharmaceuticals, Inc. AMAG.

Just like Exact Sciences, Amag had been approaching a new high as well before getting hit pretty hard January 9. It is currently trading at $42.53 at the time of this writing.

All three of the stocks mentioned above have a short interest percentage of just around 32 percent.

Related Link: The Top 5 Biotech Gainers Of 2014

1^st Place: Myriad Genetics

Finally, the biotech stock currently having the highest amount of short interest is Myriad Genetics, Inc. MYGN.

Over 40 percent of Myriad’s outstanding shares are in short position. The stock closed on January 9 at $38.10 and is at this time trading around $38.99.

Obviously, investors must conduct their own due diligence before investing in any stock; the biotech stocks considered for this review were confined to those over $5 per share that traded at least 500K shares a day based on a 90-day average.