Profits Keep Royal Dutch Shell off Short Interest Radar

Despite high oil prices earlier in the year and the obvious financial crisis, this morning, Shell (RDS.A) announced a 22% net third-quarter profit. However, the turmoil is also creating opportunities for large, well-financed companies with strong balance sheets such as Shell, says the FT. Yesterday, Shell's shares closed at 11.6% higher, and were up 177p at £17.05.

In short-interest terms, Shell has been off the short selling radar, with the percentage of its Market Cap out on loan remaining under 5% over the past two years. The one-year high peaked in May at just over 4%, at a time when Nigeria demanded that Shell and ExxonMobil (XOM) pay a total of almost $2bn in unpaid taxes after a review of contracts covering huge offshore oilfields signed in the early 1990s. In the past week, shorts have notably been covered, down from 2.95% to 2.45% as of close of business on Tuesday. ExxonMobil's %MCOL has remained under 1.6% over the last two years.

This is Shell's short interest graph below:

click to enlarge

Disclosure: None