Quick overview

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Beyond Meat erased a gain of up to 112 percent on Wednesday, closing the day lower and ending a wild run for the newest company caught up in a resurgence of the meme-stock craze. Starting the day at $7.69, the struggling producer of plant-based burgers and sausages continued a rally that had pushed the price up by more than 1,300 percent since Thursday.

However, after losing the gains, it fell over 27% before rebounding to finish down 1%. Day traders may have been driving the momentum by attempting to buy shares to pressure short sellers, who had bet against the company by selling borrowed shares that they had to repurchase to close their positions.

About 64% of the shares available on the market had been sold short as of the end of September.

As another sign of the resurgence of the meme-stock trend first seen during the pandemic, Roundhill Investments announced late Monday on X that it had added Beyond Meat to its Roundhill Meme Stock ETF.

The rally gained traction after the company revealed that Walmart will expand its product availability to over 2,000 stores, the statement said. As more consumers turned to healthier alternatives during the pandemic, the stock experienced a surge.

The stock swung between gains and losses, with volatility causing more than a dozen trading halts. Bloomberg’s exchange data shows that options trading volume hit a record earlier in the day. Shares of Beyond Meat are still higher than they were at the start of last week, when the company announced that nearly all of its creditors had agreed to a debt swap, resulting in significant dilution for shareholders