MW SunPower, MicroCloud Hologram and other highly shorted names are riding the meme-stock wave
By Emily Bary
GameStop and AMC are high-profile meme plays, but other names with greater proportions of short interest are seeing momentum as well
Meme-stock mania is sweeping up numerous heavily shorted names, beyond the obvious subjects like GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.
Take SunPower Corp. (SPWR), a maker of solar-energy technology, for example. Short interest represents 82.6% of the float, according to FactSet data. And the stock is up 72% in Tuesday morning action, heading for its largest single-day percentage gain on record, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Still, SunPower shares are down 50% over the past year, and the solar company's current market capitalization of $832 million is a fraction of its peak $9.19 billion level, achieved in January 2021, based on FactSet data.
See also: This feels like the meme-stock craze of 2021. It's nothing like it. Yet.
Fellow solar play Maxeon Solar Technologies Ltd. (MAXN) is seeing a 55% bump in its stock price in Tuesday morning action. Short interest for the company, now worth about $200 million, is about 45% of the float, according to FactSet.
For context, short interest is 24% of the float for GameStop $(GME)$ and 21% of the float for AMC $(AMC)$.
There's also MicroCloud Hologram Inc. (HOLO), a tiny company focused on holographic technology. FactSet shows short interest at 75% of the float for MicroCloud, whose shares are up about 75% in Tuesday action. The company's market capitalization sits just above $21 million.
Children's Place Inc. $(PLCE)$, the beaten-down retailer facing liquidity challenges, saw its stock open 17% higher before pulling back to be up nearly 9% in recent action. Short interest constitutes 70% of the float for Children's Place.
Shares of Beyond Meat Inc. $(BYND)$, for which short interest represents 41% of the float, are up 17% on Tuesday. Shares of beleaguered airline Spirit Airlines Inc. $(SAVE.AU)$, with 27% of the float sold short, are ahead more than 7%.
Plug Power Inc. $(PLUG)$ issued an upbeat update on the status of its Department of Energy loan facility on Tuesday, but the company had previously said it was close to such a deal. Given that short interest represents nearly 31% of the float for Plug Power, some of the stock's strong momentum in Tuesday action could be tied to the meme-stock rally in highly shorted plays.
Plug Power shares are up almost 30% in morning trading after being up as much as 70% shortly after the open.
While nearly 29% of the float is shorted for Carvana Co. (CVNA), that stock isn't seeing the same magnitude of Tuesday gains as some other popular bearish bets. The stock was up as much as 6.6% earlier in the trading day, though it was recently ahead by about half that amount.
S3 Partners Managing Director Ihor Dusaniwsky weighed in on the short-squeeze backdrop for higher-profile names in a Tuesday report.
"The meme trade is back and short sellers in stocks like [GameStop], AMC and [Trump Media & Technology Group Corp.] $(DJT)$ will be teetering on the short-squeeze cliff as their stock prices surge," he said. "Crowded stocks with mark-to-market losses are targets for short squeezes, and these three stocks fit the bill."
-Emily Bary
This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 14, 2024 11:31 ET (15:31 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments