Is Wendy’s the next GameStop, a meme stock fueled largely by enthusiastic traders on Reddit? For about 24 hours, it sure looked that way, though as of Thursday afternoon, it appeared that the purveyor of the Frosty and square burgers may not be as lucky.
Shares of the Dave Thomas–founded fast-food chain surged as high as 35 percent on Wednesday for a gain of 26 percent, then jumped over 19 percent in premarket trading on Thursday after retail investors on r/WallStreetBets rallied around a call to “save Wendy’s before it’s too late.” One user proclaimed in a lengthy post that “our pigtailed savior may make a comeback,” thanks to new management, a plan to expand in China, and a potential buyout by billionaire investor Nelson Peltz. Another shared a screenshot showing a $350,000 position and the caption “$WEN to the moon — 350K YOLO.” A third declared, “Time to meme like we have never memed before.”
In a note to investors, Don Bilson, head of Gordon Haskett’s event-driven research team, wrote, “Reddit crowd hijacks stock. GameStop is inarguably the OG of meme stocks. It earned that distinction during Covid and credit for this is owed to the army of apes that get their marching orders from Reddit’s WallStreetBets thread. This army happens to be on the move again this morning outside of Columbus, Ohio. That is where Wendy’s makes its home and its stock.”
