Bed Bath & Beyond Shares Near 52-Week High Amid Renewed Interest in Meme Stock

© Reuters

By Scott Kanowsky

AiVIF.com -- Shares in Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY) added on to a recent surge in U.S. trading on Wednesday, flirting with its highest mark in a year, as social media buzz helped spur a renewed rush of retail trading in the meme stock.

As of 10:06 EST (14:06 GMT), shares in the home furnishings company had soared by 34.92% to $27.86. The share price rose to as high as $30 at one point in early deal-making, approaching a 52-week high of $30.14.

The stock had gained 29.06% during the previous session to close at $20.65.

The group's shares were also the top-traded stock on the brokerage Fidelity's platform, signaling sustained demand from retail investors.

Trading volume in the stock also continued to rise, with more than 97M shares changing hands by 10:17 EST (14:17 GMT).

Interest in the company's shares has risen with fresh vigor this week, recalling the surge in retail trading of so-called meme stocks like GameStop (NYSE:GME) and AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) early last year.

The rally comes after activist investor Ryan Cohen's investment vehicle RC Ventures bought call options - essentially a bet that the value of an underlying asset will increase - set to expire in January 2023 on 1.67M shares with a strike price of between $60 to $80. RC Ventures is the second-largest investor in Bed Bath & Beyond.

Discussion of the company has also noticeably picked up on Wall Street Bets, the Reddit forum widely credited with purposefully driving up the prices of shares in meme stocks last year to squeeze hedge funds with large short positions. Mentions of Bed Bath & Beyond have far outpaced any other stocks on WallStreetBets over the past week, according to the website Quiver Quantitative.