Alfi Inc shares tumble more than 25% from record highs, 'meme stock' Torchlight also sinks (updated)

Meta Materials

23/06/2021 17:11

(Updates prices, adds company disclosure)
    June 23 (Reuters) - Shares of new retail darlings Alfi Inc
 ALF.O  and Torchlight Energy  TRCH.O  were both down more than
25% on Wednesday, highlighting the wild ride facing investors in
so-called meme stocks in a year that has thrown the spotlight on
retail traders. 
    Shares of software firm Alfi were recently down nearly 27%
at $12 after more than doubling in price to close at $16.29 in
the previous session. Analysts and social media users had
pointed to an article on Benzinga.com, which quoted the
company’s CEO and said Alfi would buy back $2 million of its
shares, as part of the reason for Tuesday’s move.
    Without going into further details about any plans, the
company in a regulatory filing on Wednesday referred to the
article, saying it stated that “Alfi announced a new $2 million
buyback plan” and CEO Paul Pereira is quoted stating “(We) will
continue to buy back our stock as (a) firm commitment to our
company valuation.”
    Another retail darling, Torchlight Energy tumbled 29% on
Wednesday, extending a 29% slide in the previous day's session
after it upsized its stock offering to $250 million.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2O42M6
    Shares of a group of heavily shorted companies including
video game retailer GameStop Corp  GME.N  and cinema operator
AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc  AMC.N  have seen wild swings
this year in a phenomenon dubbed the "meme stock" rally that has
been driven by retail traders on online discussion forums.
    Although short interest in Alfi last stood at 3.85% of free
float, according to Refinitiv data, the company was among the
top 10 trending stocks on trading-focused social media site
Stocktwits, a platform commonly seen as a measure of interest
from retail investors.
    GameStop has also cashed in on the Reddit-driven rally in
its stock, saying on Tuesday it had raised $1.13 billion in its
latest share offering. Its shares were up 0.2%, barely adding to
a 10% gain in the previous session.
    Another meme stock, Clover Health Investments Corp  CLOV.O 
was up 5.8% in high-volume trading while ContextLogic Inc
 WISH.O  was down 0.3%.
    AMC shares were up 1.3%. 

 (Reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bengaluru, Sinéad Carew
in New York, Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Lisa Shumaker)
 ((sinead.carew@thomsonreuters.com; +1 (646) 223 6186; Reuters
Messaging: sinead.carew.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))