Text size
A worker carries a broom near the closed shops in the center of Tangier Outlets in Atlantic City, shares in Tangier in NJ rose on Thursday.
Angus Mordant / Bloomberg
Tangier Factory Outlet Center
took a wild walk on Thursday, the latest hot potato stock caught in a short squeeze.
The mall operator has a large amount of short interest, currently over 33% of its shares, according to FactSet. This makes it among the strongest stocks shortened along with
GameStop
(30.2%),
Rocket Cos.
(39.7%) and
GoodRx Holdings
(27.6%), according to MarketWatch data.
Shares in Tangier (ticker: SKT) rose 22% on Thursday morning to a high of 52 weeks before settling. By mid-afternoon, they had completely lost steam and were down 5.4%. The stock has increased by 38% in the last year, compared to a 20% increase over a year
S&P 500.
Shopping malls were among the most affected stocks during the pandemic, forced to temporarily close locations and restrict the number of shoppers, while juggling budget tenants facing the same challenges.
Tangier was a topic on a Reddit forum called WallStreetBets. A message on Wednesday said that “SKT is about to reach its highest point in May 2019 and is the second shortest stock after GME. You know what to do! ”
“Let’s make this explode,” the post says. “Help highlight this stock and turn it into the new GME.”
A Tangier spokesman was not immediately available on Thursday.
WSB on Reddit is the forum where stock trading enthusiasts share ideas. It is also a major focus of those investigating training
GameStop
(GME),
AMC Entertainment Holdings
(AMC) and other stocks a few weeks ago, in a trading frenzy described as retail investors chasing professional short sellers.
The average rating of the six analysts who publish research on Tangier is underweight, the equivalent of a sale. Revenues for the whole of 2020 fell by 10% to $ 370 million, according to FactSet.
Write to [email protected]