Alfi Inc shares more than double, other 'meme stocks' mixed

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22/06/2021 22:02

By Sinéad Carew
    June 22 (Reuters) - Shares of software firm Alfi Inc  ALF.O 
finished up 108.8% on Tuesday, one of the latest companies that
has seen its stock surge in a broader rally that has refocused
attention on so-called meme stocks in recent weeks.
    Shares in Alfi closed at $16.29 after touching a high of
$16.45, with 211 million shares changing hands, making it the
third most actively traded stock on U.S. exchanges on the day.
Its market cap has ballooned to $201 million, from a $15.5
million valuation for its early May stock market debut.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nACS0N9Bba
    Some social media users and one portfolio manager cited a
Benzinga.com report that Alfi planned to buy back stock as
helping to fuel the rally. An investor relations representative
for Alfi pointed Reuters to the report without providing
details.
    The stock had already surged almost 127% last week after it
announced the rollout of tablets to Uber  UBER.N  and Lyft
 LYFT.O  drivers nationwide.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2NY1Y7
    "They've had two great stories come out in recent days. It's
a small company and doesn't take much to move the stock," said
Daniel Morgan, portfolio manager at Synovus Trust in Atlanta,
Georgia.
    Volatility in stocks including AMC Entertainment Holdings
 AMC.N  and video game retailer GameStop  GME.N  have in recent
weeks helped reinvigorate a meme stock craze that reached a peak
in January, fueled in-part by retail investors congregating on
platforms such as Reddit’s WallStreetBets.
    "I call this the casino corner of the stock market, all
those highly speculative retail stocks that are being traded
with no attention to what their actual worth is or
fundamentals," said Ernesto Ramos, U.S. chief investment officer
 at BMO Global Asset Management in Chicago.
    Other stocks that have recently captured investor attention
include Torchlight Energy Resources  TRCH.O , which was the
second most actively traded stock on Tuesday, falling 29.4%
after it increased its stock offering to $250 million from $100
million as it cashed in on retail investor interest in its
shares.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2O344O It had closed Monday's session up 58%.
    Shares of GameStop, meanwhile, closed up just under 10%
after announcing it raised about $1.13 billion in its latest
share offering, cashing in further on interest in its shares.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2O42MG 
    Shares of AMC, which closed up 4.6% on Tuesday are up 2888%
for the year-to-date, while GameStop's were still up about 1070%
for the year so far even after paring gains dramatically.  
    Clover Health  CLOV.O  closed up 12.4% on Tuesday after
rising as much as 25% earlier in the session.

 (Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Ira Iosebashvili and
Lisa Shumaker)
 ((sinead.carew@thomsonreuters.com))