Student makes $175m trading meme stock favourite Bed Bath & Beyond

Bed Bath & Beyond is one of a handful of meme stocks that became popular at the start of 2021. Photo / AP

A 20-year-old university student has made a roughly US$110 million ($175.1m) gain by selling a stake in struggling retailer Bed Bath & Beyond, after its stock price soared during a month of frenzied trading reminiscent of last year's meme stock boom.

Jake Freeman, an applied mathematics and economics major at the University of Southern California, acquired nearly 5 million shares in Bed Bath & Beyond in July, according to regulatory filings, after dismal earnings and the ousting of its chief executive sent its stock price plummeting.

Freeman bought his stake at under US$5.50 a share. On Tuesday, Bed Bath & Beyond surged to more than US$27 a share. As the stock soared, Freeman sold more than US$130m worth of stock from his TD Ameritrade and Interactive Brokers accounts.

"I certainly did not expect such a vicious rally upwards," Freeman said in an interview on Wednesday. "I thought this was going to be a six months plus play . . . I was really shocked that it went up so fast."

After selling the shares, Freeman went for dinner with his parents in the suburb of New York City where they live and on Wednesday he flew to Los Angeles to return to campus, he said.

Freeman amassed his more than 6 per cent position via Freeman Capital Management, a fund registered in the cowboy town of Sheridan, Wyoming, according to the filings. He said he raised money from friends and family and believed the ailing company could restructure its debt.

Upon disclosing his position in July, Freeman sent an uncompromising message to the retailer's board. The company, he said, was "facing an existential crisis for its survival". It needed "to cut its cash-burn rate, drastically improve its capital structure, and raise cash", he added.

Shares of the New Jersey-based chain — known for operating cavernous stores full of vacuums, towels and kitchen gadgets — have risen fivefold over the past month even after the grim earnings report on June 29.

It reported sales had plunged by 25 per cent in the second quarter compared to the same period of 2021 while its net loss widened to US$358m from US$51m. Its cash position had dwindled to US$107m from US$1 billion at the start of the year.

Bed Bath & Beyond is one of a handful of meme stocks that became popular at the start of 2021 but has garnered less attention than GameStop, the video game retailer, and AMC, the cinema chain.

The increase in its share price has been driven by interest from retail investors attracted by the stock's small free float and a significant number of short sellers betting the share price will fall.

Those two characteristics tend to draw interest from retail investors frequenting Reddit forums. It means they can try to engineer a "short squeeze" by driving the share price higher and forcing professional investors to unwind their bearish positions, which only propels the stock even higher.

Freeman's sale was well-timed. Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond fell by 17 per cent in after-hours trading on Wednesday after Ryan Cohen, GameStop chair and a large shareholder of the homeware retailer, disclosed he is planning to sell his entire stake of almost 12 per cent in the company.

It was a separate disclosure on Monday from Cohen, co-founder of pet food retailer Chewy and a meme-stock champion, that sent the stock on a tear on Tuesday. He disclosed he had purchased a large number of call options in Bed Bath & Beyond — derivatives that can deliver a windfall if a stock rises in value.

Cohen did not respond to a request for comment.

Written by: Antoine Gara and Madison Darbyshire

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