A person takes a selfie in front of a newly unveiled logo for “Meta,” the new name for Facebook’s parent company.
Noah Berger/AFP via Getty Images
Shares of Meta Materials , a Canadian material sciences company, continued to rise Friday in an apparent case of mistaken identity after Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook
‘s name was changing to Meta.
But for meme stock traders, the stock’s rise is anything but a mistake.
“For those out there who think we jumped because ‘people thought they were buying Facebook for cheap.’ Use your brains,” wrote one Reddit user on a community board to discuss Meta Materials’ (ticker: MMAT) stock. The user then hinted there was “more to it.”
The Nova Scotia-based company creates materials used in manufacturing for a variety of industries, including consumer electronics and aerospace. It has nothing to do with Facebook (FB), which will begin trading under the ticker “MVRS” starting in December.
Shares of Meta Materials were up 1.8% to $4.63 Friday. It gained 30% after the markets closed Thursday. It closed Thursday at $4.56, up 4.8%.
Retail investors were buoyed by a tweet sent out by Meta Materials CEO George Palikaras, which many took to be hinting toward a potential partnership between the Canadian company and the rebranded Facebook.
“On behalf of @Metamaterialtec I would like to cordially welcome @Facebook to the #metaverse. #GoBeyond $MMAT #AR #VR Meta, meet META® :-),” Palikaras tweeted Thursday evening.
“I applaud Mark Zuckerberg’s multi billion dollar commitment to make the metaverse a reality,” Palikaras said in an emailed statement. “Our company, META MATERIALS INC. (Nasdaq: MMAT) has pioneered many of the fundamental physical technologies such as nanomaterials and optics, displays and 5G connectivity which Mark’s team and many other companies can use to enable this great vision we all share.”
Meta Materials announced Thursday an augmented reality eyewear online panel discussion, which includes panelists from Facebook’s Reality Labs.
Meme stock traders have been bullish on Meta Materials for a few months now. pushing the stock to an all-time high of $21.76 in June.
A similar phenomenon happened in April 2019 with Zoom Technologies (ZOOM), a penny stock that soared 56,000% within 30 days because investors mistook it for Zoom Video Communications (ZM). But while some seasoned investors called the move clueless, retail investors defended it.
“People say, ‘These fools don’t know what they’re doing—they’ve invested in the wrong company,’” Jaime Rogozinski, creator of the WallStreetBets forum, told Barron’s in January. “My response to that is, who’s the fool? They made more money than had they invested in the actual Zoom company.”
Write to Sabrina Escobar at [email protected]
