6 Hated Stocks to Stay Away From

NEW YORK (Stockpickr) -- When looking to invest in a particular company, you need to pay attention to the opinions of others. Though you'll find lots of positive media and analyst commentary on the stocks you are researching, you have to seek out the bearish views as well.

You can find these bearish views by looking at a stock's short interest position. If a stock is heavily shorted, then there may be major red flags that the financial media and Wall Street analysts are missing.

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Here are six heavily-shorted stocks, and a quick look at why they may be in the cross-hairs for short-sellers. Whether you currently own these stocks or are just looking into buying them, you need to dig deeper into these issues.

Sprint

The short interest in the stock of wireless services company Sprint (S) has been rising all year, recently hitting a hefty 199 million shares. Thus far, short-sellers have taken a beating as shares have actually risen more than 30% since mid-May.

But the shorts are undeterred. They spot a looming legal challenge, which in a worst-case scenario could cost the company tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars.

Earlier this year, New York State's Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued Sprint for failing to collect sales taxes from some customers in a bid to have seemingly lower prices than rivals. Sprint counters that the uncollected portion of taxes on monthly bills reflects out-of-state calls that are beyond the purview of NY State. Other states are watching the legal fight and could decide to join New York State. In fact, that is the path that short-sellers appear to be anticipating.

You should fully research the issues regarding the lawsuit before you decide to invest long or short in Sprint.

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