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The 7 Most Hated Stocks on Wall Street Today

By U.S. News & World Report

There’s no easy way to identify the most hated stocks on Wall Street, but looking at the activity of short sellers is a great place to start.

Short selling is a difficult art that involves researching companies to determine which of them are overvalued or facing serious business problems. Sometimes short sellers uncover something nefarious, including accounting issues, but many times they are simply taking the other side of the trade — selling when others are buying. They can be just as wrong as the bulls, and their advice should be taken with a grain of salt.

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That said, while short sellers are not always right, ignoring their arguments can be dangerous for bullish investors. It’s always important to look critically at Wall Street and your portfolio, so understanding stocks out of favor can be just as valuable as uncovering new opportunities.

If you’re looking for the most hated stocks on Wall Street, start with this list. All seven companies are worth more than $1 billion but have more than 30% of their available shares held by short sellers expecting the bottom to fall out.

Stock Market capitalization Short interest
Acadia Healthcare Co. Inc. (ticker: ACHC) $2.4 billion 42%
CleanSpark Inc. (CLSK) $2.4 billion 47%
Hims & Hers Health Inc. (HIMS) $6.1 billion 44%
Intellia Therapeutics Inc. (NTLA) $1.5 billion 43%
Novavax Inc. (NVAX) $1.6 billion 31%
Ondas Inc. (ONDS) $4.4 billion 34%
SoundHound AI Inc. (SOUN) $3.4 billion 35%

Acadia Healthcare Co. Inc. (ACHC)

Market value: $2.4 billion Short interest: 42%

Acadia provides behavioral health care services, including inpatient psychiatric facilities as well as outpatient and residential recovery centers. Given rising struggles with mental health and addiction across America, ACHC might seem like a strong stock based on long-term trends. But recent headlines tell a different story. Institutional investor Engine Capital Management recently divested more than 2.2 million shares following a brutal 60% decline from Acadia’s 2024 highs. Continued reimbursement risk and regulatory scrutiny only add more uncertainty. When a stock loses the support of major shareholders, it can signal a broader crisis of confidence that leads to persistent share declines.

CleanSpark Inc. (CLSK)

Market value: $2.4 billion Short interest: 47%

CleanSpark operates with heavy exposure to Bitcoin, both mining the cryptocurrency and providing infrastructure for the digital assets ecosystem. Bitcoin enjoyed a powerful rally over the past year, peaking near $95,000 in January. But it has since fallen below $70,000 and appears to be weakening amid broader “risk-off” sentiment in financial markets. CleanSpark rode the rally higher, surging roughly 10 times from about $2 a share in 2023 to nearly $20 late last year. But momentum has now reversed, and the stock has taken a beating as crypto enthusiasm cools. As a result, many investors have grown increasingly skeptical of this small-cap crypto play.

Hims & Hers Health Inc. (HIMS)

Market value: $6.1 billion Short interest: 44%

There was a time when Hims & Hers ranked among the strongest momentum stocks on Wall Street. The telehealth leader built a following by making treatments such as weight-loss medications and mental health services more accessible and affordable. That momentum hit a major roadblock recently when the company was forced to abandon certain weight-loss products after backlash from U.S. regulators and a lawsuit from drugmaker Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO) over its patented Ozempic products.

That feud came to a sudden end on March 9 as Hims and Novo Nordisk came to an agreement in which the latter dropped the lawsuit and Hims gained the right to sell Wegovy and Ozempic on its platform, sending HIMS stock surging. Although shares remain at less than half the valuation they commanded last fall, the stock quickly rallied more than 60% in a matter of days on the agreement, sparked, in part, by a horde of short sellers rushing to cover their positions. It’s likely the short interest will decline in the weeks ahead.

[Read: 10 of the Best Stocks to Buy This Year.]

Intellia Therapeutics Inc. (NTLA)

Market value: $1.5 billion Short interest: 43%

Intellia is a classic high-risk, high-reward biotech that exemplifies the characteristics of Wall Street’s most hated stocks. Major news events — particularly clinical trial updates — can make or break the company. Wall Street expects roughly 300% revenue growth next year, but NTLA remains deeply unprofitable as it works toward commercialization. The real blow came last fall when the Food and Drug Administration placed a clinical hold on one of Intellia’s drugs. Shares collapsed from above $28 to under $6 in just a few months. While the pause was lifted in March, it will likely require significant positive results to rebuild Wall Street’s confidence. And in biotech, one misstep can quickly spell disaster.

Novavax Inc. (NVAX)

Market value: $1.6 billion Short interest: 31%

Biotech firm Novavax specializes in developing vaccines. Over the past few years it has become one of Wall Street’s most hated stocks, plunging more than 90% from its 2022 highs after demand for its COVID-19 vaccine evaporated and revenue collapsed. Recently, the company has attempted to stabilize its business through strategic partnerships. Those efforts may be showing some progress, highlighted by a surprise fourth-quarter profit. Still, the company remains deeply unprofitable on an annual basis and revenue continues to trend lower. That combination of a massive share price decline and deteriorating fundamentals helps explain why bears remain eager to short this health care stock.

Ondas Inc. (ONDS)

Market value: $4.4 billion Short interest: 34%

Ondas develops drone technologies with both civilian communications applications and military uses. Its Iron Drone Raider defense-grade drones are designed primarily for automated surveillance and counter-drone protection rather than offensive strikes. The company has attracted attention amid rising geopolitical tensions, but its financials remain modest. Ondas is expected to generate only about $50 million in revenue this year, giving the stock a lofty valuation relative to sales. Shares have surged roughly 1,000% over the past year as investors piled into the defense-drone theme. But the company is still unprofitable, and many traders believe the stock is priced to perfection — explaining why short sellers are betting the rally could eventually collapse.

SoundHound AI Inc. (SOUN)

Market value: $3.4 billion Short interest: 35%

At first glance, SoundHound looks like the kind of “agentic AI” stock investors love. The company focuses on artificial intelligence software for voice recognition, transcription and automated customer service. But SoundHound faces intense competition from major tech players including Microsoft and Google, which are pushing their own AI tools into enterprise markets. The company still expects more than 30% revenue growth this fiscal year. However, shares have fallen to roughly one-third of their 2025 peak as investors grew wary of its lofty valuation. Prices may now look more reasonable after the decline, but once a stock becomes one of Wall Street’s most hated names, rebuilding investor confidence can be difficult.

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The 7 Most Hated Stocks on Wall Street Today originally appeared on usnews.com

The world’s oldest president left for a ‘brief stay’ in Europe. He hasn’t returned in two months

By CNN
(CNN) — When Paul Biya won his first presidential election in Cameroon in 1984, Nformi Bime was 23 and still a student.Bime is now 65 and retired from teaching. Biya is 93 – and still president. Last year, he won a disputed eighth term that could keep him in office until he is nearly 100.“The best is yet to come,” Biya said before the election, which his opponents called fraudulent and was marred by deadly clashes between protesters and police.For the past two months, however, the man who has ruled Cameroon since 1982, when as prime minister he assumed power following the resignation of the sitting president, has been thousands of miles away. He left on June 7 for what his office called a “brief private stay in Europe” — now his longest uninterrupted absence from the Central African nation in years.Last week, government spokesman René Emmanuel Sadi told French radio RFI that Biya was in Geneva, Switzerland and was not hospitalized, but did not give more detail on his whereabouts.A president who is rarely seenBiya is Cameroon’s second president since independence in 1960 and one of the world’s longest-serving leaders. He first won office in 1984 under a one-party system, then won six more elections after multiparty politics was introduced.He has spent extended periods abroad during his presidency. But his latest absence has revived questions about his health and who is running the country while he is away.Rumors about Biya’s health and whereabouts have long been part of public life in Cameroon, where he is rarely seen in public. His office has repeatedly had to push back against speculation that he was seriously ill or had died. In 2024, the government banned media discussions about his health, calling them a national security matter.Biya’s long rule also reflects a wider contrast across Africa. The continent has the world’s youngest population, but several countries are still led by aging leaders whose political careers began decades ago, including former liberation figures now governing in a different era.For millions of Cameroonians, Biya is the only president they have ever known.Bime’s children are among them. His oldest is 32, and his youngest is 18.Abit Riassai Acha, a 26-year-old doctoral student and community youth leader at the University of Yaoundé II, belongs to the same generation.“Growing up, President Biya was the only president I knew, so his presidency has been part of my entire experience of Cameroon,” said Acha, who voted for the first time in last year’s presidential election, backing the youthful opposition candidate Samuel Hiram Iyodi, 38.After more than four decades under the same president, questions about his leadership have only grown.“Because this has happened repeatedly over the years, many Cameroonians have become used to it,” Acha said of Biya’s long absences. “But becoming accustomed to something does not necessarily mean that people should stop asking questions about how the country is being governed.”Iyodi, who finished eighth in last year’s presidential election, which several candidates, including one of Biya’s main challengers, were barred from contesting, has called on parliament to ask Cameroon’s Constitutional Council to consider whether Biya’s absence amounts to a vacancy in the presidency. But such a move is unlikely to succeed, given the dominance of Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement.Despite being away, Biya has continued to make key decisions from abroad, including a major military reshuffle announced earlier this month. Yet questions about his prolonged stay overseas have left officials publicly assuring Cameroonians that their president is still alive.Government spokesman Sadi dismissed concerns about a power vacuum, telling RFI that “President Paul Biya is alive” and “will soon return.”From hope to frustrationBime is old enough to remember when Biya was the change. He first heard Biya’s name in the 1970s, when he served as secretary-general of the presidency under Cameroon’s first president after independence, Ahmadou Ahidjo. After Ahidjo resigned in 1982, Biya took over.When Biya first appeared on the ballot two years later, Bime saw him as a “representation of hope,” he said. “We believed he was young and dynamic – handsome too. He meant so much to Cameroonians.”Few imagined that the man they saw as a new beginning would remain in power for decades. For his critics, the disappointment is not just about how long Biya has stayed in office, but what they see as his failure to improve the lives of ordinary Cameroonians.Political analyst Collins Molua Ikome, a Cameroonian based in Germany, said he saw some of the country’s problems firsthand when he visited Cameroon in April.“Roads in Cameroon are extremely bad. I even witnessed a fatal accident,” he told CNN.Ikome also pointed to frequent power cuts, corruption and a lack of jobs for young people.Wilson Tamfuh, a public and international law professor at the University of Dschang in West Cameroon, said the country has institutions that can keep the government running when the president delegates responsibilities. Key duties, he said, can be handled by the prime minister, the secretary-general at the presidency and ministers.But the bigger question, Tamfuh said, is whether the government is solving the country’s longstanding problems.“People want the Anglophone crisis resolved, standards of living ameliorated, more good roads, fewer people on the streets with degrees, and more,” he told CNN, referring to the years-long separatist conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.Whenever Biya eventually leaves office, his successor will inherit a country also facing attacks by Boko Haram militants in the north and deep economic frustration among young people.Healthcare is another concern. Ikome said access to quality healthcare remains out of reach for many Cameroonians.“Life expectancy in the country is below 70 years. However, Biya has far outlived that due to access to medical healthcare abroad, which the ordinary Cameroonian cannot access due to poverty,” Ikome said.The divide is not unique to Cameroon. Across Africa, political elites have often sought healthcare or maintained homes abroad, even as public services at home struggle.For Bime, the question is more personal: Will he live to see another president?After decades of waiting for change, he worries he may not – and that Biya could outlive him and many others who are not part of the country’s elite.“Anytime they have a cold, they run overseas and are taken care of, but the other Cameroonians are dying because of lack of care,” he said.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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