Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) is on course for its best month ever, even exceeding the early meme stock explosion. That’s despite BBBY stock plunging from a recent intraday high on Aug. 17.
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Fellow meme stocks GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment (AMC) have erased big August gains and turned negative, with AMC stock tumbling after the movie theater chain went “APE split.”
BBBY Stock
Bed Bath & Beyond stock is up nearly 113% so far this month as of Aug. 26. That would be its best monthly gain ever, exceeding its 99% spike in January 2001, when meme stocks true took off.
The meme stock ramped up hard for much of August. Then after the market close on Aug. 15, GameStop Chairman Ryan Cohen disclosed big out-of-the-money BBBY stock options, helping to fuel sharp gains in the next two sessions. At the Aug. 17 peak, Bed Bath & Beyond hit a five-month high of 30, up 496% from the end of July.
But after the Aug. 17 close, GameStop’s Cohen announced plans to sell all his BBBY stock holdings. A day later, Cohen disclosed that he had, in fact, cashed out. Meanwhile, the housewares retailer reportedly hired a bankruptcy law firm amid heavy losses and plunging sales.
Bed Bath & Beyond tumbled nearly 20% on Aug. 18 and 40.5% on Aug. 19. Shares fell another 20% to start last week, closing Tuesday at 8.78.
This “meme reversion,” in which a meme stock skyrockets but then quickly retraces much or all of the move, is not uncommon.
However, BBBY stock jumped 18% Wednesday on reports that the retailer had secured a loan deal to shore up liquidity as it tries to avoid bankruptcy. It closed the week at 10.70.
GME Stock
GameStop stock, the original meme stock, is now down 9% so far this month, closing Friday at 30.91. On Aug. 8, GME stock hit a four-month high of 47.99, up 41% vs. July. GME stock has fallen for the last nine sessions.
AMC Stock
AMC stock is down 37% so far in August, closing Friday at 9.17, the lowest since May 2021. At its Aug. 8 high, the meme stock was up 89% for the month.
Earlier this month, AMC Entertainment issued APE preferred shares to existing AMC stock holders. The APE shares are functionally almost identical to AMC stock, so it was essentially a stock split. However, APE shares are trading at a discount, closing at 6.50 on Friday. So the AMC+APE price is 13.67, down from AMC’s 14.56 at the end of July.
The APE shares are a way for AMC Entertainment to raising more cash by issuing more shares. AMC Entertainment sought authorization to sell more AMC common shares, but investors declined. But the meme stock can sell hundreds of millions of APE shares before requiring investor approval.
Please follow Ed Carson on Twitter at @IBD_ECarson for stock market updates and more.
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