ReutersApr 28, 2021 02:18:37 IST
(Reuters) – Shares of MicroVision Inc finished down almost 24% on Tuesday after a blistering rally in which the laser-developer’s stock almost tripled in value in less than a week.
MicroVision, which develops laser scanning technology for automotive lidar sensors and augmented reality, was the most mentioned stock on Reddit’s popular WallStreetBets forum on Tuesday, according to sentiment tracker SwaggyStocks, outstripping other retail favorites such as GameStop and AMC.
The stock closed at $20.16 after rising more than 47% to $26.44 in the previous session, with data showing it was the most-traded equity among customers on Fidelity’s brokerage platform on Monday.
Trading volume on Tuesday was more than three times MicroVision’s 10-day moving average, with around 153 million shares having changed hands by the late afternoon. It was the fifth most-actively traded of all Nasdaq-listed stocks.
MicroVision is one the latest stocks to capture the attention of traders on Reddit’s popular WallStreetBets and other online forums, after a wild ride in shares of GameStop and others favored by retail investors threw the spotlight on so-called meme stocks earlier this year.
Shares of MicroVision were trading at around $5 in early January, weeks after short-seller Hindenburg Research said in a Dec. 22 Twitter post that it was betting against the company’s stock. Hindenburg did not reply to a request for comment.
MicroVision’s shares are up around 275% so far this year.
On Tuesday, some members of the WallStreetBets forum exhorted each other to hold onto their shares while others lamented the sell-off.
“I bought before the hype because I liked the company,” SnooFloofs5881 wrote on Tuesday. “I still am losing money this is such a joke.”
Other stocks that have been a focus on social media were also showing outsized moves on Tuesday, with GameStop closing up 5.2% while Ocugen finished up 0.6% after falling as much as 14.5% earlier in the session. Ocugen had rallied 20.4% in the previous day’s session.
(Reporting by Sinéad Carew in New York, Aaron Saldanha and Shashank Nayar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Sriraj Kalluvila and Dan Grebler)
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