Robinhood sparks buzz on Reddit, shares up 15%

(Reuters) -Shares of Robinhood Markets Inc jumped more than 15% in premarket trading on Wednesday as interest from star fund manager Cathie Wood and small-time traders set up the stock for a fourth

August 4, 2021

(Reuters) -Shares of Robinhood Markets Inc jumped more than 15% in premarket trading on Wednesday as interest from star fund manager Cathie Wood and small-time traders set up the stock for a fourth session of gains after its underwhelming IPO last week.

The 24% surge in Robinhood’s stock on Tuesday elevated it above the $38-price set in last Thursday’s IPO and gave the company a market capitalization of about $39 billion.

Its stock was last up 14.9% at $53.5 on Wednesday, and the second-most traded across U.S. exchanges in trading before the bell.

“People are trying to jump on the back of Cathie Wood’s vote of confidence in Robinhood shares,” said Thomas Hayes, managing member at Great Hill Capital in New York.

“The catalyst was certainly Cathie Wood putting in a sizable position after everyone was downbeat after the IPO.”

Wood’s Ark Fintech Innovation ETF bought another 89,622 shares of Robinhood on Tuesday, and the stock now amounts to about 0.9% of its portfolio, according to a summary of the fund’s daily trading.

Overall, Wood’s flagship ARK Innovation ETF has accumulated nearly 5 million Robinhood shares, worth about $229 million.

Robinhood shares also saw a surge in interest from small-time investors, with retail trading volume rising tenfold on Tuesday, according to Vanda Research.

It was the most mentioned stock on WallStreetBets, the Reddit platform at the center of this year’s “meme stock” rally, over the past 24 hours, according to sentiment tracker SwaggyStocks.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Shailesh Kuber)