College student makes over $100 million betting on meme stock

By John Hugh DeMastri
Daily Caller News Foundation

College student & investor Jake Freeman, 20, sold a large stake in Bed Bath and Beyond after a meme stock rally caused the price to skyrocket in August, MarketWatch reported.

Freeman sold his 5 million shares, representing a 6.2% stake in the company for $130 million, after acquiring them for $25 million in July with funds from friends and family, MarketWatch reported. The price of Bed Bath and Beyond shares in July generally hovered between $4.50 and $5.50 per share, before skyrocketing as high as $28.04 on Aug. 16, according to market data provided by The Wall Street Journal.

“I did not expect the price to soar as it did,” Freeman told MarketWatch “I did expect that as [Bed Bath and Beyond] better structured its balance sheet for value to be unlocked. I felt at those elevated levels, [the stock] was not worth it from a risk/reward standpoint.”

Upon aqcuiring his shares in July through firm Freeman Capital Management, Freeman wrote to Bed Bath and Beyond’s management, recommending that the company make drastic changes in order to survive, according to MarketWatch. The surging share prices come as analysts and traditional investors expressed concerns about cash flow at the company, which burned $300 million in reserve funds and borrowed $200 million in credit, leaving it with just $100 million in cash after investments in their own store brand did not perform well, the WSJ reported.

Shares have since gone down from these meteoric highs, as Ryan Cohen, the second largest shareholder in Bed Bath and Beyond, filed a proposal to sell his stake in the company Wednesday, Business Insider reported.

The plot thickens with meme stock Bed Bath & Beyond as news broke that Ryan Cohen will be selling his entire holdings, which caused the share price to fall off a cliff. The FOMC mins had quite a few dovish twists to them so we’ll have to see what Kashkari and George say today pic.twitter.com/lCeMtKduI5

— Pepperstone (@PepperstoneFX) August 18, 2022

Does this college kid have a future in finance?

“We were pleased to have reached a constructive agreement with RC Ventures in March and are committed to maximizing value for all shareholders,” Bed Bath and Beyond said in an Aug. 17 SEC filing Form 8-K, used to notify investors of important events. “We are continuing to execute on our priorities to enhance liquidity, make strategic changes and improve operations to win back customers, and drive cost efficiencies; all to restore our company to its heritage as the best destination for the home, for all stakeholders.”

Despite the drop in prices, posts regarding the stock remained incredibly popular on the Reddit forum Wall Street Bets, with one member speculating that the 8-K is “very likely the closest they can legally get to say [Cohen] does not plan to cash out right now as people have been reporting without actually saying it. [Cohen] very likely also had input on the statement – no way they would [put] it out without talking to him if they are mentioning him,” in a post with hundreds of comments and thousands of upvotes.

RC Ventures and Bed Bath and Beyond did not immediately respond to a Daily Caller News Foundation request for comment.

This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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