5 More Stocks Under Attack

Everyone loves a winner. It's reasonable to assume, then, that everyone hates a loser. Yet with investing, that's not always the case.

Contrarian investors love to pick through stocks that others have cast away. Value investors are the garbage-divers of the marketplace. Conversely, when stocks have a big run-up, some investors like to bet against them. They're called short-sellers, and they bet that a stock is primed for a fall.

What goes up must come down
Here's a list of stocks on the New York Stock Exchange that reported having some of the largest short interest positions in June. We'll turn to the collective intelligence of the Motley Fool CAPS community to learn which of these stocks -- if any -- Foolish investors think have the power to make short work of short-sellers.

Of course, this isn't a list of stocks to buy -- or short! Maybe these stocks have some serious problems that warrant the high short interest. Maybe not. What do you think? Will they be squeezed?

Tapping the CAPS advantage
Over on CAPS, more than 60,000 investors are looking over these same stocks. Some they like, some they don't, and they vote on how they feel about them. Sometimes, though, the stocks CAPS players like cross swords with those that short-sellers don't.

For the first time since we began to track the short attacks, there's been no new entrant on the list, meaning that short-sellers haven't found new targets to dislike. It also looks like the CAPS community still isn't so hot for them either. Only Time Warner rates as high as an average three stars, while Ford is the bane of the market with its one-star rating. Yet where most of the companies have reported an easing of their short positions, AMD seems to be attracting them like flies.

That might have something to do with the view that Intel will be winning the near-term war against its rival. Both have been engaged in a costly price war where Intel cut prices more than 25% over the past three years. As a result, margins have been hurt, but recent analyst comments seem to suggest that the chip maker can grow them again as it pulls ahead of AMD in the high-end chip market. AMD has had some surprising performance issues -- AMD chips usually garner top honors over Intel -- and that may hurt it near term.

That's what has caught the notice of CAPS investors like kpirate who writes:

Intel has had the lead on AMD for a while now and AMD keeps delaying its new line of processors, on which there is increasing amounts of pressure/necessity to succeed. Intel seems to be several steps ahead at all times. ... Not to mention ATI just isn't delivering, other than its fortunate position in the Xbox 360 and Wii.

trajan24 thinks the situation is far more strained and speculates that the chip maker might even face some dire consequences if it doesn't get its financial house in order.

Terrible financials and high debt load. Losing over five hundred million each of the last two quarters. Terrible execution. Bad will engendered by endless boasting about new products R600 and Barcelona which fail to deliver and are repeatedly delayed. Nvidia and Intel are eating AMD's lunch at the moment. High risk of bankruptcy protection or buyout. Both cases current shareholders get screwed. ...

The bearish arguments, though, don't sway Tophinater who thinks it's the technology that will ultimately win the day.

I'm a pretty computer savvy guy. I build all my own PCs and used to do it for money. Right now Intel owns the market with its Conroe core. Later this year AMD is slated to release its new "Phenom" core, and if history has taught us anything, it will dominate the Intel's Conroe in almost every aspect of technology. ... By the beginning of 2008 if not sooner, AMD will dominate the x86 market in terms of semiconductor performance and will offer the greatest performance to $$$ratio then ever before. The only advantage Intel will have is its marketing which it continues to spend enormous amounts of money.

Speak up!
You've heard from the CAPS community; now it's your time for a star turn -- tell the community what you have to say. Only on Motley Fool CAPS does your opinion count just as much as the short-sellers'. Tell us what you think: Squeeze 'em till it hurts, or short 'em till the sun don't shine? May the best argument prevail!

Time Warner is a recommendation of Motley Fool Stock Advisor. A 30-day free trial subscription is your shortcut to market-beating returns. Intel is a recommendation of Motley Fool Inside Value.

Fool contributor Rich Duprey owns shares of Ford and Intel, but does not have a financial position in any of the other stocks mentioned in this article. You can see his holdings here. There's no shortcut around The Motley Fool's disclosure policy.