Ondas led the entire US market in failed-to-deliver shares in late August, SEC data shows

Ondas Holdings (Nasdaq: ONDS), a defense-drone company partnered with Palantir, was the single most failed-to-deliver security in the United States during the SEC's most recent reporting period, according to Protos, citing the commission's twice-monthly fails-to-deliver disclosures covering the second half of August.

On the Monday after Ondas reported quarterly earnings, 20,954,097 shares of its common stock sat undelivered inside the National Securities Clearing Corporation's Continuous Net Settlement system, Protos reported from the SEC data. No US stock failed to deliver more shares that day. A failure to deliver occurs when the party responsible for delivering shares to close a trade doesn't hand them over by settlement.

The company carries heavy short interest — 40.9% of its float, Protos reported, roughly ten times the ~4% level of a year ago. Ondas also spent stretches on the SEC's Threshold Securities list, which flags stocks with five straight settlement days of fails above both 10,000 shares and 0.5% of shares outstanding; per Protos, ONDS was on that list from August 18 through August 27.

The elevated bearish positioning sits awkwardly against the company's reported results. Ondas posted $83.8 million in second-quarter revenue — more than 13 times its Q2 2025 figure — and lifted its full-year revenue target above $525 million, citing government contracts, according to Protos's summary of the earnings. Even so, the stock is down 22% year-to-date and, after an earlier 10x run off penny-stock levels, is flat over the trailing 12 months.

Key facts

• 20,954,097 ONDS shares undelivered in NSCC's CNS system on the Monday after earnings — the most of any US security that day (SEC fails-to-deliver data, via Protos).
• Ondas topped the national fails-to-deliver list for the second half of August (SEC disclosure, via Protos).
• Short interest: 40.9% of float, up from ~4% a year earlier (Protos).
• On the SEC Threshold Securities list Aug 18–27 (Protos).
• Q2 revenue: $83.8M, >13x Q2 2025; FY target raised above $525M (Protos, citing company results).
• Stock down 22% YTD, flat over 12 months (Protos).

The real-world read

High fails-to-deliver numbers are catnip for "naked shorting" narratives, and Ondas has a vocal bullish base framing the stock as on a "generational run." But the receipts don't support that leap. The SEC itself cautions that "fails-to-deliver are not necessarily the result of short selling, and are not evidence of abusive short selling or 'naked' short selling" — a line Protos foregrounds, and one the bull camp's manipulation claims skip past. Fails can stem from mundane processing and settlement issues. Worth flagging too: this rests on a single secondary outlet's read of the SEC files; the underlying fails-to-deliver and Threshold data are primary and public, but the earnings figures here are the company's own reported numbers, not independently audited in this account.

This is news, not financial advice.

Sources

• Protos (Tier 2, secondary), "Ondas investors blame short-sellers, fails-to-deliver," 2026-09-28 — reported the fails-to-deliver ranking, share counts, short-interest, Threshold Securities dates, and earnings figures, citing SEC fails-to-deliver disclosures (primary/public) and Ondas's own reported results. No indication of sponsorship.