Is the Market Right or Wrong About These 4 High Short Interest Stocks?

Is the Market Right or Wrong About These 4 High Short Interest Stocks? Written by Chris Markoch | Reviewed by Clare Titus September 24, 2026

High short interest stocks draw attention for a simple reason. They show where Wall Street's skepticism is concentrated. Short interest measures the percentage of a company's float that has been sold short. When that number climbs, it means a meaningful group of investors expects the stock to fall. Short interest is only one factor to consider when evaluating a stock's short-term outlook. It's also not an independent variable. That means a stock with high short interest typically needs additional conditions to be met for it to drop. Those conditions might include slowing growth, margin pressure, a shaky macro backdrop, or thin institutional support.

That's why the days-to-cover ratio matters as much as the headline number. It shows how many days of average trading volume it would take for short sellers to close their positions. The higher that number, the more fuel a potential rally has. The following four stocks have elevated short interest levels. Each tells a different story. In some cases, short sellers appear to be reading the fundamentals correctly. In others, the market may be pricing in a perception that the numbers don't fully support.

Hims & Hers: Strong Growth Comes at a Cost Hims & Hers Health NYSE: HIMS is down about 49% over the last 12 months. Bulls will point to the stock's five-year gain of 250% as a reason to buy this dip. A wait-and-see approach may be a safer choice.

Growth is a double-edged sword for the company. In its Q2 2026 earnings report, HIMS delivered year-over-year (YOY) revenue growth of nearly 40%, with particularly strong growth in international markets. However, sustaining this growth at scale is weighing on margins and free cash flow. The company also faces ongoing litigation expenses following unproven claims of serious misconduct and potential violations of federal securities laws by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Short interest in HIMS is around 26.7%. More concerning is the 4.3 days of normal trading volume it would take for all those shares to be covered. It's also worth noting that while HIMS has about 63% institutional ownership, it had heavy selling activity in the fourth quarter of 2025, and buyers haven't come back in a meaningful way.

Ondas: A Hot Sector Can't Hide the Profitability Gap Ondas NASDAQ: ONDS should be a stock that investors are leaning into. The company is squarely positioned in the autonomous systems/robotics space.

However, ONDS is down over 22% in 2026, erasing almost all of its 2026 gains. The key reason for the stock's slide is that the company isn't profitable at a time when investors are getting nervous about valuation in the technology sector. Revenue growth certainly isn't the problem, but the market seems to bel...