5 Semiconductor Stocks Trading Near Highs On Strong Short Covering

Looking for stocks surrounded by positive market sentiment? For ideas on how to start your search, we ran a screen you may be interested in.

We began by compiling a list of stocks from the semiconductor industry in the tech sector. We screened for those stocks trading within 10% of their 52-week highs, as well as seeing significant decreases in shares shorted month-over-month.

?Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the stocks mentioned below. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.?

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We also created a price-weighted index of the stocks mentioned below, and monitored the performance of the list relative to the S&P 500 index over the last month. To access a complete analysis of this list's recent performance, click here.

Do you think these stocks will break through to new highs? Use this list as a starting point for your own analysis.

1. KLA-Tencor Corporation (KLAC): Engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related nanoelectronics industries. The company is trading 6.62% below its 52-week high. Shares shorted have decreased from 9.18M to 5.94M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.95% of the company's float of 166.20M shares.

2. Novellus Systems, Inc. (NVLS): Develops, manufactures, sells, and supports equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. The company is trading 6.91% below its 52-week high. Shares shorted have decreased from 6.67M to 5.70M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.54% of the company's float of 62.91M shares.

3. Power Integrations Inc. (POWI): Designs, develops, manufactures, and markets proprietary, high-voltage, analog, and mixed-signal integrated circuits in the United States and internationally. The company is trading 10.00% below its 52-week high. Shares shorted have decreased from 3.61M to 3.10M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.86% of the company's float of 27.42M shares.

4. NetLogic Microsystems Inc. (NETL): Engages in the design, development, and sale of processors and integrated circuits. The company is trading 0.12% below its 52-week high. Shares shorted have decreased from 4.23M to 3.45M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.19% of the company's float of 65.40M shares.

5. Silicon Laboratories Inc. (SLAB): Engages in the design and development of analog-intensive and mixed-signal integrated circuits. The company is trading 7.24% below its 52-week high. Shares shorted have decreased from 6.14M to 3.74M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 6.55% of the company's float of 36.65M shares.

*Short data sourced from Yahoo Finance, all other data sourced from Finviz.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.