Reddit Decided to ‘Save Wendy’s’ and Its Stock Jumped 42% in ‘Abnormal Retail Buying’
Wendy’s joins GameStop as a meme stock after surging in value following a Reddit post urging fans to boost the brand.
Wendy’s became the internet’s latest meme stock on Wednesday, after retail traders on Reddit decided the struggling burger chain needed rescuing. A WallStreetBets post titled “We need to save Wendy’s” went viral, pushing the stock up as much as 42% and briefly triggering a trading halt on the New York Stock Exchange for volatility, according to CNBC. The stock closed up 25.7% at $7.86 a share.
We’ve seen this movie before. The sudden surge has clear echoes of GameStop, where retail traders on Reddit piled into a heavily shorted stock in 2021, sending it from under $20 to nearly $500 in a matter of days before it came crashing back down. Wendy’s stock has lost about 36% over the past year, and roughly 23% of its float is currently sold short.
Whether the momentum lasts is another question. As Vanda put it, the surge was driven by “abnormal retail buying.” But Wendy’s is hoping for a turnaround after appointing Bob Wright, former head of Potbelly, as its new CEO.
Wendy’s became the internet’s latest meme stock on Wednesday, after retail traders on Reddit decided the struggling burger chain needed rescuing. A WallStreetBets post titled “We need to save Wendy’s” went viral, pushing the stock up as much as 42% and briefly triggering a trading halt on the New York Stock Exchange for volatility, according to CNBC. The stock closed up 25.7% at $7.86 a share.
We’ve seen this movie before. The sudden surge has clear echoes of GameStop, where retail traders on Reddit piled into a heavily shorted stock in 2021, sending it from under $20 to nearly $500 in a matter of days before it came crashing back down. Wendy’s stock has lost about 36% over the past year, and roughly 23% of its float is currently sold short.
Whether the momentum lasts is another question. As Vanda put it, the surge was driven by “abnormal retail buying.” But Wendy’s is hoping for a turnaround after appointing Bob Wright, former head of Potbelly, as its new CEO.
