It was only a matter of time before the meme trader savants over at r/WallStreetBets latched onto a stock that played on their “ape” personas. Dole (NYSE:DOLE) is the newest ticker of interest among the frenzied bunch, and it’s not because of fundamentals. Transcending the usual short squeeze scheming of the subreddit, DOLE stock is coming into the fold off of name and business model alone. After all, it seems intuitive enough: Apes love bananas.
If you don’t recognize Dole by name, the chance is still quite high that you’ve consumed their products. The company is the largest distributor of fruits and vegetables in the world. It’s perhaps best known by consumers through its fruits and juices, especially its bananas, which bear the Dole logo.
It’s only fitting then that r/WallStreetBets is taking DOLE stock for a run today. The traders, who spent the last year building up an ape-themed “brand” for themselves, have began to take notice of DOLE. Mentions of Dole on the subreddit have gone through the roof seemingly overnight. Mentions of the stock are up 4,600% on the subreddit in particular, and discussion of it is sweeping across a number of other retail-centric investing boards.
DOLE Stock Becomes the Muse of Ape Retail Traders
Given DOLE stock’s largely unremarkable trading patterns, this is a bit of an odd choice, even for the r/WallStreetBets crowd. The stock saw its intial public offering (IPO) just recently, listing at the end of July. Since then, it has traded sideways most of the time. In fact, it has never left the $14 to $16 range. Moreover, it’s not a short squeeze play, either, which is typically a must for that crowd. With less than 2% of its float being sold short, it doesn’t stand to deliver with the usual meme trader investing style.
This seems to be a concerted pump-and-dump effort by the swarm of traders, and many of the subreddit’s users are unabashed about it. Those who aren’t buying on the uptrend are still looking to profit from their peers’ efforts; many r/WSB users are making known their intentions to buy put calls on DOLE for when the pump ends.
Until then though, DOLE stock is seeing significant price movement. In pre-market trading, DOLE was up over 10%. At the market’s open, those gains shrank to just over 4%. Its trading volume is also already over daily averages, with over one million shares trading hands against an average of 900,000. The stock is surely one to watch throughout the day. Who knows where the Reddit trading crowd might take the stock next?
On the date of publication, Brenden Rearick did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
