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

Key Points

• Hims & Hers, Ondas, Coinbase, and SoFi all show elevated short interest, but the underlying reasons and outlooks differ significantly for each stock.
• Hims & Hers and Ondas face high short interest alongside margin pressure, unprofitability, or litigation risk, suggesting short sellers may be reading fundamentals correctly.
• Coinbase's short interest has fallen sharply amid crypto optimism, while SoFi's strong growth metrics have not yet convinced investors despite a bullish analyst price target.

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 believe it's already priced into ONDS.

Short interest is over 40%, and it would take 3.7 days for all the short positions to get covered.

Adding to the complicated picture, only about 37% of ONDS shares are owned by institutions, which allows short sellers to carry, perhaps, an outsized influence on the stock.

Risk-tolerant investors can look at the analysts' forecasts on MarketBeat that give ONDS a consensus price target of $17.18, an increase of approximatey 130%. That would take the stock to a new 52-week high. However, investors will likely have to wait until the company's Q3 2026 earnings report in November for the stock's next catalyst.

Coinbase: Short Sellers Are Heading for the Exit

The crypto winter may be starting to thaw. That showed up in the short interest on Coinbase Global NASDAQ: COIN, which dropped over 19% versus the last month and now sits at around 12%. Could this be the start of a short-fueled rally in COIN?

Arguing for the bull case, ironically, is the progress on the CLARITY Act. This is a case where news, even of the bad kind, is good news. The sentiment still seems to be that passage is a matter of when, not if.

That's bullish for the digital currency space, of which Coinbase is a major player. The company is also being aided by the rally in Bitcoin, which is benefiting from risk-on sentiment.

The big test is likely to come when the company reports its third-quarter earnings in late October.

Although the nascent crypto rally isn't likely to be reflected in those numbers, investors will want to hear the company's guidance for 2027.

SoFi: The Business Is Winning, But the Stock Isn't

SoFi Technologies NASDAQ: SOFI has lost roughly 35% of its value in 2026 and sits more than 45% below its 52-week high set in November 2025. Yet the underlying business has rarely looked stronger.

In its Q2 2026 earnings report, SoFi posted adjusted net revenue of $1.2 billion, a 40% YOY increase. It added 1.1 million members, lifting its total to 15.8 million. It also added 2.2 million products. For the first time, product growth was double member growth. That's a strong sign the cross-selling strategy is working.

So why is the stock falling? Management raised full-year revenue guidance but held EBITDA and earnings guidance steady. The CFO said the company is reinvesting extra revenue in growth rather than expanding profitability.

Investors wanted proof that growth is turning into earnings. Shares dropped nearly 9% after the report.

Short interest in SOFI is around 13.7%, with 4.1 days to cover. That's lower than HIMS or ONDS in percentage terms. But roughly 177 million shares are sold short. At current prices, that's about $3 billion in bearish bets.

Analysts rate SOFI a consensus Hold, with an average price target of $22.53, about 36% above the current price. The next catalyst is the company's third-quarter report, expected in late October. If SoFi shows margins expanding alongside growth, short sellers could find themselves on the wrong side of the trade.