diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
index d097b5b47eb81e16b83a8a37f3385aeea124a0ed..40720150ccd80670e49285d3a0a49c2d184b45e3 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
@@ -1961,7 +1961,7 @@ static int parse_metric_groups(const struct option *opt,
 	return metricgroup__parse_groups(opt, str, &metric_events);
 }
 
-static const struct option stat_options[] = {
+static struct option stat_options[] = {
 	OPT_BOOLEAN('T', "transaction", &transaction_run,
 		    "hardware transaction statistics"),
 	OPT_CALLBACK('e', "event", &evsel_list, "event",
@@ -2847,6 +2847,12 @@ int cmd_stat(int argc, const char **argv)
 		return -ENOMEM;
 
 	parse_events__shrink_config_terms();
+
+	/* String-parsing callback-based options would segfault when negated */
+	set_option_flag(stat_options, 'e', "event", PARSE_OPT_NONEG);
+	set_option_flag(stat_options, 'M', "metrics", PARSE_OPT_NONEG);
+	set_option_flag(stat_options, 'G', "cgroup", PARSE_OPT_NONEG);
+
 	argc = parse_options_subcommand(argc, argv, stat_options, stat_subcommands,
 					(const char **) stat_usage,
 					PARSE_OPT_STOP_AT_NON_OPTION);