Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ:BYND) shares continued to skyrocket as part of a meme stock rally, having surged about 650% in the last five trading days.
The plant-based food company has seen its shares jump from about $0.60 last Thursday to $5.20 on Wednesday morning.
Driving the surge is retail investors on social media, coupled with short squeezes.
Beyond Meat is one of the most shorted stocks in the US, with about 81.8% of its free-float shares sold short, up from 64% the previous week.
Investors have been betting against Beyond Meat amid financial challenges and a significant stock dilution after the company proposed a debt swap exchanging over $1 billion in convertible notes for shares, which increased the total share count from about 76.6 million to over 316 million shares.
Shares of donut chain Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc (NASDAQ:DNUT) also benefited from the meme stock enthusiasm, up almost 14% at about $4 on Wednesday morning.
Its surge is more modest compared to Beyond Meat but still significant, driven by retail investors and plans for international expansion into Spain, Brazil, and Uzbekistan.