Strong interest in “meme stocks” is happening once again of late with retail investors circling Reddit, Discord and Twitter to find which stocks have strong interest and sentiment and could see short squeezes.
Here’s a look at one potential candidate.
What Happened: GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) and AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE:AMC) led a wave of meme stocks and new investors in 2021 with David vs. Goliath battles between investors and hedge funds.
Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY) saw rise in interest and was labeled as the next GameStop and AMC by some with parallels seen from a large stake by activist investor Ryan Cohen, who also owns a sizable stake in GameStop.
With Bed Bath & Beyond seeing its rally over and Cohen exiting the stock, the question turns to what the next meme stock could be.
Some investors are pointing to outdoor cooking company Weber Inc. (NYSE:WEBR).
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Can Weber Rally Continue?: Shares of Weber are up 20% over the last five days and up 12% in the last month.
Interest in the name has been picking up on Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets and elsewhere.
Former hedge fund manager Will Meade also made the case for Weber to be the next Bed Bath & Beyond. Meade cites Bed Bath & Beyond being a known retail brand, having high short interest, counting Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates as an investor as reasons for the thesis.
$WEBR is the next $BBBY in my opinion $WEBR has a billionaire investor Bill Gates$WEBR is a known retail brand $WEBR has high short interest 67%
— Will Meade (@realwillmeade) August 18, 2022
Very similar stories and $BBBY went from $5 to $30
Data from Fintel shows that Weber has 55.2% of its float short and a cost to borrow of 39.3%. This makes the stock rank ninth at the time of writing on its short squeeze leaderboard. The short interest in Weber ranks second highest of the top ten squeeze candidates and fourth highest overall according to the site.
Weber has previously been featured as a top five short squeeze candidate on Fintel in February and June.
Recently, Benzinga highlighted Weber as a short squeeze candidate to watch.
“Outdoor cooking company Weber Inc has been a former stock in the top five and is nearing a return to the top of the leaderboard. The company moved up 31 places to 13th place,” Benzinga reported.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation own 2.5 million shares of Weber according to filings.
Weber, which had its initial price offering in August 2021, reported third quarter revenue of $528 million. Revenue was down 21% year-over-year, but came in ahead of analyst estimates of $526.2 million.
Weber outlined a cost management plan to help manage cash flows, preserve liquidity and expand gross margins. The plan is expected to result in a cash benefit of $110 million in fiscal year 2023.
“Our third quarter performance reflects the margin pressures we are experiencing as a result of global headwinds in our current operating environment. To strengthen our financial position for fiscal 2023 and beyond, we are introducing a comprehensive cash flow and cost management plan,” Weber interim CEO Alan Matula said.
WEBR Price Action: Weber shares are down 12% to $8.77 on Friday. Shares closed up 26% to $10 on Thursday.
