The groundswell of support for Medicare insurance startup Clover Health Investments started a couple of weeks ago on the r/WallStreetBets Reddit page. Select users began extolling the stock, saying it was the next big thing. And, as often happens on that subreddit, others shouted those evangelists down.
The believers persisted, though. And by Monday, it was clear that they were starting to make their voices heard. As Blackberry shares surged and the individual investors that make up the WallStreetBets community celebrated the rise, four of the top 20 posts at midday were Clover focused.
By Tuesday, the community was on board. Clover shares soared 70% in early trading, climbing over $8 to $20.26 as of 11:00 a.m. ET.
“This one hasn’t even hit the mass media yet,” wrote user izzy_izzalia. “It’s still under the radar. Wait until CNBC starts talking it up etc. Shorts are absolutely screwed here.”
“It sure looks like the action is about to start,” agreed Jack-Incredibles.
Clover’s explosion on WSB was a fast-growing phenomenon. As of 8:38 a.m. ET yesterday, there were fewer than 100 comments on the stock on WSB’s popular daily discussion thread, according to Quiver Quantitative, an alternative data analytics company. By the same time today, that number was up to 2,747.
Over the past five days, Clover Health has seen its stock value increase 129%. WSB traders believe a short squeeze could be at play for the company, which has a short interest of 36.10% of the total float of 112.06 million, according to tracking site highshortinterest.com. That’s higher than AMC, which could poise Clover for a notable Reddit-fueled run.
Like most meme stocks, though, Clover has some red flags. Four months ago, it received a notice of investigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission following a report from Hindenberg Research saying Clover “misled investors about critical aspects of Clover’s business in the run-up to the company’s SPAC go-public transaction.” The Hindenberg report claimed that “Clover has not disclosed that its business model and its software offering…are under active investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ), which is investigating at least 12 issues ranging from kickbacks to marketing practices to undisclosed third-party deals.”
Clover said it intends to cooperate with the SEC investigation.
Meme stocks, as a whole, are soaring Tuesday. An hour after the opening bell, GameStop was up 19% to $334, AMC saw a 5% gain to $57.94, and Blackberry was up 4% to $16.43.