AMC shares have surged 146% in just 4 days as gleeful Reddit traders squeeze shorts, pushing the stock well above January highs
- AMC stock has skyrocketed as much as 146% this week amid renewed interest from Reddit users.
- The rally began early in the week after Wanda Group sold most of its remaining stake in the company.
- Short sellers lost $1.77 billion on GameStop, AMC, and Virgin Galactic, as of Wednesday, according to data from ORTEX.
Shares of AMC Entertainment have skyrocketed as much as 146% this week as retail traders continue to pour into the stock.
AMC, the world's largest movie theater chain, is on a four-day hot streak, and has surged past its January high of $19.90 when Redditors first rallied behind the stock. Shares approached $30 Thursday, with one day gains as high as 56%.
As the stock price surged, so did the number of Reddit comments about AMC, according to HypeEquity data.
On Wall Street Bets, the 10-million member thread best known for starting the GameStop saga earlier this year, Redditors rallied behind the stock, posting the usual rocketship and moon emojis, indicating their view that the stock has a long runway for gains.
Redditors also shared the massive gains they said they made amid the stock's resurgence. One shared a screenshot of a $10,000 bet on AMC that turned into $375,000. Another Redditor said they put all of their savings into the stock and received 1,700 upvotes, aka likes.
One Redditor shared a picture of an astronaut on the moon with an AMC theater. The post, which received 1,200 upvotes, read: "It's happening! Can AMC go to the moon?"
The AMC rally began earlier this week after Redditors cheered newly available shares on the market, thanks to the company's once largest shareholder, private Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, selling almost all of the remainder of its stake in the company.
Wanda Group bought AMC in 2012 for $2.6 billion and began selling down its stake in December after the company posted a $4.6 billion loss in 2020. Wanda Group's stake is now just .002%.
Following the news, one Redditor proclaimed, "We now hold the future of this company!"
Meme stocks, like AMC, GameStop, Virgin Galactic, and BlackBerry, have all seen strong gains this week amid positive sentiment about the companies from retail traders on Reddit.
And short sellers have lost a fortune. The latest data from ORTEX shows short sellers lost $1.77 billion on their positions in GameStop, AMC, and Virgin Galactic as of Wednesday.
But short sellers haven't given up. The data show that short interest in the companies has actually gone up during the week. According to MarketBeat data, short interest in AMC is 21%. Short interest for GameStop, Virgin Galactic, and BlackBerry, is 21%, 24%, and 9%, respectively.