Bed Bath & Beyond leads surge in meme stocks’ rally

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc jumped 23% on Wednesday, leading to a surge in meme stocks again as individual investors continued to dabble in highly shorted shares.

Bed Bath & Beyond has gained in 14 out of the past 15 sessions, helping the home goods company’s market value more than quadruple to over $2 billion. The stock was last trading at $25.93 after rising up to $30 earlier in the session.

“It truly is a quality company (but) shares are probably overvalued in the low teens and it is ridiculously overvalued at high $20s,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer at Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Retail investors net bought $73.2 million worth of the company’s shares on Tuesday, the highest single-day purchase in at least five years, according to Vanda Research’s retail trade flows data, as a filing showing activist investor Ryan Cohen’s long-term call option purchases enthused retail punters.

Bed Bath & Beyond was the most actively traded single stock option on Wednesday, far ahead of popular options trades including Apple Inc and Tesla Inc, data from Options Clearing Corp showed.

The resurgence in retail trading comes after a rebound in U.S. stocks that helped the S&P 500 recoup more than half of the benchmark’s losses since its June low.

“It’s possible for the meme rally to spread since there is a lot of short-term capital entering the market. We’ve seen the same with Chinese meme stocks over the past few weeks as well,” Siddharth Singhai, chief investment officer at New York-based hedge fund Ironhold Capital.

Among others, e-commerce firm Vinco Ventures advanced 32% and meal-kit delivery firm Blue Apron rose 8.7%.

About 55% of Bed Bath & Beyond’s free float is shorted, an increase of 19% in the past 30 days despite the price surge, according to S3 Partners.

“While short-sellers were squeezed out when BBBY hit $10, $15, and $20 per share, there were other traders who saw (that) as attractive short-side entry points,” said S3’s Ihor Dusaniwsky.