Bed Bath & Beyond stock slid Thursday after a 62% surge the previous session.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
What the meme gives, the meme can take away.
That’s what Bed Bath & Beyond stock (ticker: BBBY) is learning on Thursday morning. The highflying shares of the home goods retailer surged 62.1% in regular trading Wednesday, but fell more than 10% at recent check in volatile trading.
Nominally, there was news from Bed Bath on Wednesday: The company announced three new private label brands focusing on kitchenware, storage, and décor. Back in March, Bed Bath’s Chief Executive Officer Mark Tritton outlined to Barron’s his strategy for bringing more private label offerings to the stores, and the company most recently introduced a value-focused line called Simply Essential last month.
However, as Barron’s noted Wednesday, previous launches haven’t caused much movement in the shares. The difference this time is that the meme trade is hot again.
Bed Bath was one of the original stocks—along with GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC)—caught up in the late January short squeeze, when retail investors bid up stocks that were disliked by Wall Street. These so-called meme stocks have once again come into focus with little else to grab the market’s attention in the past couple of weeks. AMC stock found itself temporarily halted due to volatility on Wednesday, while Dogecoin soared.
Bed Bath slid 10.6% to $39.50 in early trading. The shares have soared 148.8% year to date, and more than 406% in the past 12 months.
Likewise Express (EXPR), which was saved from delisting by small traders, closed 36.5% higher Wednesday, but dived 11.8% to $5.74 at recent check, after announcing that it would sell as many as 15 million shares. Shares of the mall-based apparel seller have surged more than 615% year to date, and gained 244.4% in the past 12 months.
Write to [email protected]
