Markets
Hims & Hers Health CEO Andrew Dudum
Hims & Hers CEO Andrew Dudum (Business Wire)

Hims is cozying up to retail investors

CEO Andrew Dudum and his company are engaging more and more with everyday investors. Meanwhile, more analysts on Wall Street who typically inform institutional investors see the company as a sell.

On August 10, a retail trader on X tagged Hims & Hers CEO Andrew Dudum in a post saying they would “buy all in your stock” if he responded “hello.”

Dudum obliged:

The same day, the CEO replied to a Hims & Hers customer who was complaining about his gummies melting during shipping. “On it. What state?” Dudum wrote in response to the customer, whose bio says they’re “just a long term investor in high growth stocks with personal opinions.” A few hours later, the customer posted that Dudum’s responsiveness “has sold me on $HIMS stock. I’ll be investing tomorrow.” 

Hims has emerged as a darling among retail investors, in part because its stock is volatile and the company frequently makes market-moving news. Dudum told Sherwood News earlier this year that he believes Hims retail investors are likely people who have used the service and had good experiences with it. 

“That’s one of the beautiful parts of our business in the public markets,” he said at the time. “People who know the product, who know the service, who have experienced it and have been empowered by it and feeling better, those are the people going and buying shares of the stock. It’s actually just that they love the product.”

Hims stock has swung wildly this year, trading as high as nearly $70 and as low as just over $25. As some Wall Street analysts have become more bearish on the stock — three of the 16 analysts covering Hims have a “sell” rating on the stock, compared to none a year ago — Hims has leaned even more into the retail-investing community. 

Dudum recently thanked Hims House, a bullish daily blog for the company’s retail investors, after it wished him a happy birthday. He responded with a laughing emoji to an investor’s post speculating that hormone treatments would launch that week. The post was paired with a GIF of a marmot screaming “ANDREW,” which has become a staple among Hims investors online. 


This year, the company started regularly taking questions during earnings calls from Hims House. The blog first submitted questions in Q3 2024, but the company didn’t take them, said Jonathan Stern, who authors the blog. As retail interest grew, the company began asking Hims House for questions when it reported Q4 earnings in February, Stern said. Hims has answered questions from Hims House during the two earnings calls since. 

Dudum opened things up even more broadly earlier this month, soliciting questions for the earnings call from the retail community on X days before Hims’ earnings report. 

The company also sends press statements to Hims House, which are typically telegraphed in full on X. On Thursday, after Bloomberg reported that the FTC was still probing Hims, they did not respond to requests for comment from Bloomberg (or Sherwood) but sent a statement to Hims House.

While Dudum is busy embracing his investor community, his family trust has sold some of its shares in the company. Filings show that the trust sold 660,000 shares of Hims stock for $33.5 million last week, marking the largest open-market insider sale of Hims stock since the company went public in 2021.

A spokesperson for the company said Dudum remains the company’s largest shareholder and is “committed to the company’s long-term growth.” The spokesperson added, “The referenced sales were indirectly associated with Mr. Dudum, outside of his personal holdings, for tax and philanthropic purposes.” 

It’s not uncommon for CEOs to embrace retail investors, especially if they’re bullish and less critical than analysts from the Street. Perhaps the most prominent example is Palantir and its CEO, Alex Karp. 

Allen & Company Annual Conference Draws Media And Tech Leaders To Sun Valley
Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Palantir has cultivated one of Wall Street’s most devoted retail followings through frequent, bite-sized announcements and direct engagement from the company’s social media accounts. Hims does this as well, teasing the launch of Hers gummies and dropping hints of potential partnerships via X.

Like Hims, Palantir also takes questions from retail investors on its earnings calls. Karp hasn’t hidden his disdain for Wall Street analysts, who he says underestimate the company.

At the end of Palantir’s most recent earnings call on August 4, Karp gave a message to retail investors: “Maybe stop talking to all the haters. They’re suffering.”

Hims didn't respond to questions for this article as of publication.

More Markets

See all Markets
markets

BNP upgrades Seagate on more durable cycle

Seagate Technology Holdings was up in early trading after analysts at BNP Paribas upgraded the shares to “outperform” from “neutral” and lifted their price target to $380 a share, implying a gain of almost 15% from where the stock is currently trading.

The maker of the somewhat stodgy technology known as hard disk drives — or HDDs in tech lingo — was one of the top stocks in the S&P 500 for much of last year as it was swept up in the AI data center trade.

Data centers need tons of storage capacity, and demand from hyperscalers has driven up prices and created shortages for disk drives, an industry that is dominated by a duopoly of Seagate and Western Digital. (BNP also maintained its “outperform” rating on WDC in a note Wednesday.)

The analysts at BNP say they pushed by the buy button on the stock after becoming more convinced that the upswing in sales was durable, writing:

“We have witnessed a structural shift happening in HDD industry, toward 1) an effective duopoly, 2) higher mix toward data centers, and 3) disciplined capex investments. These have supported our expectations of long-term, through-cycle profitability for the HDD industry. We are now upgrading Seagate from Neutral to Outperform as we are gaining greater conviction that robust data center storage demand could drive an upcycle longer than we initially expected. We think a secular re-rating of Seagate (as well as Western Digital) to over 20x is justified.”

“We have witnessed a structural shift happening in HDD industry, toward 1) an effective duopoly, 2) higher mix toward data centers, and 3) disciplined capex investments. These have supported our expectations of long-term, through-cycle profitability for the HDD industry. We are now upgrading Seagate from Neutral to Outperform as we are gaining greater conviction that robust data center storage demand could drive an upcycle longer than we initially expected. We think a secular re-rating of Seagate (as well as Western Digital) to over 20x is justified.”

markets

Stocks jump as Trump says “I won’t use force” to acquire Greenland

In a speech in Davos, Switzerland, US President Donald Trump said he won’t use force to acquire Greenland, sending stocks higher at the open. 

“We probably won't get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be frankly unstoppable, but I won’t do that,” Trump told the crowd, referring to his pursuit of Greenland, which has roiled markets recently. “People thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.” 

He seemed to indicate that Denmark, which owns Greenland, could rebuff the US’s overtures to acquire the country without military retaliation.

“They have a choice. You can say yes and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no and we will remember,” he said. Throughout his speech, Trump constantly reiterated his desire for the US to own Greenland.

Stocks rose at the open, with the S&P 500 rising 0.3%. S&P 500 futures, which had been down Wednesday morning, jumped after his comments.

markets

J&J slips despite cheery 2026 guidance

Johnson & Johnson reported fourth-quarter sales that beat expectations and gave rosy guidance for 2026.

The company said it expects to bring in between $100 billion and $101 billion in revenue this year, compared to the $98.9 billion analysts polled by FactSet were expecting. The drugmaker also expects to report between $11.43 and $11.63 in annual adjusted earnings per share, compared to the $11.48 that Wall Street was expecting.

Despite beating expectations, J&J, the first major drugmaker to report earnings results this year, fell by more than 2% in premarket trading.

markets

GameStop rallies after CEO Ryan Cohen purchases $10.6 million in company stock

Ryan Cohen isn’t waiting for any market cap and EBITDA performance milestones to get his hands on more shares of GameStop.

The CEO boosted his stake in the video game and collectibles retailer by roughly $10.6 million on Tuesday, purchasing 500,000 shares across a series of transactions at an average weighted price close to $21.12.

Shares are up nearly 2% in premarket trading on Wednesday.

Cohen owns approximately 8.45% of shares outstanding, making him the largest individual holder of the stock and the second-largest owner, trailing only index fund provider Vanguard. His last open market purchase of GameStop was on April 3, 2025 — also for 500,000 shares at a weighted price slightly higher than Tuesday’s buys.

GameStop recently announced a long-term pay package for Cohen that would tie his remuneration completely to the company and stock’s performance. If approved, it would see the CEO receive options that allow him to buy company stock at a discount if he’s able to concurrently achieve escalating levels of cumulative EBITDA and market cap milestones.

To receive the first tranche, Cohen would need GameStop to have bottom-line results roughly on par with any three-year stretch of the 2010s, while attaining a market cap that the company only received on a closing basis during the 2021 meme stock episode.

During his tenure atop the company, Cohen has proven adept at controlling expenses and overseeing the rapid growth of GameStop’s collectibles business, resulting in the retailer generating positive cash flow from operations for a record six consecutive quarters.

Separately, board member Alain Attal also purchased about $251,000 in company stock on Tuesday.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.