It seems meme stocks are back, and this time, the latest craze was sparked—somewhat accidentally—by a Canadian hedge fund manager named Eric Jackson.
About three weeks ago, Jackson’s firm, EMJ Capital, bought shares of Opendoor Technologies, a San Francisco–based company that buys and sells homes online, at around $0.70 apiece. Since then, the company’s share price has skyrocketed over 600% to an intraday high of almost $5 on July 21. Today, it’s trading at about $2.40, still a roughly 250% gain from just weeks ago.
“I think Opendoor is a real business,” Jackson told Bloomberg in an interview. “I never expected it to be called a meme stock.”
Meme stocks are shares of struggling or heavily shorted companies that surge in price thanks to hype on social media platforms like Reddit and X (formerly Twitter), often with little connection to the company’s financials. The phenomenon first took off in early 2021, when retail traders famously drove up shares of GameStop and AMC in a movement led by Keith Gill, a YouTuber and investor better known as “Roaring Kitty.” Now, Jackson is unexpectedly being pulled into that same world. Bloomberg reports that his face is already being photoshopped onto images of Roaring Kitty.
Jackson first gained prominence in 2015 with a 99-page presentation to Yahoo’s board, urging the company to replace then–CEO Marissa Mayer over mismanagement. Mayer eventually stepped down herself in 2017 after Verizon bought the company.
Ten years later, Jackson is back in the spotlight after posting a series of takes on Opendoor on the social media network X (formerly Twitter). He laid out why he thinks the company’s stock could hit $82 by 2028, and even called it a potential “hundred bagger,” a stock that could grow to be 100 times more valuable than when it was initially purchased.
Jackson says that he’s received 600 calls and emails in the past three weeks from investors eager to hear about his other investment ideas.
Other stocks in Jackson’s portfolio have caught meme status too, like crypto-related firms Iren and Cipher Mining. Iren’s shares are up 49% this month, while Cipher has surged 65%.
The meme stock mania doesn’t stop there. Companies unrelated to Jackson are getting swept up in the hype, too. At the time of writing, Kohl’s is up 58% this month, GoPro has jumped 78%, and Krispy Kreme has climbed 67%, as retail investors pile into beaten-down stocks hoping for a big payout.