John Minchillo/AP
- GameStop could be listed alongside Amazon and Microsoft if included on the Russell 1000 Index.
- AMC missed the May 7 cutoff to reach a capitalization higher than $7.3 billion.
- The stocks have ballooned to the largest on the Russell 2000 Index thanks to retail traders.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
GameStop could be one of the newest stocks on a list of the 1,000 largest companies thanks to the army of retail traders that have pushed the share price to dizzying highs.
But AMC Entertainment might have just missed the cutoff.
To be included in the Russell 1,000 Index – a group of the largest US stocks – a company should be worth at least $5.2 billion by May 7, according to a chart from FTSE Russell, which creates the indexes.
That puts retail-trader icon GameStop, which was worth about $12 billion as of the market close on May 7, in the running to be included. Being added to the index means GameStop would stand alongside behemoths like Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon.
But movie-theater chain AMC Entertainment, which led the lastest round of meme-stock mania over the last few weeks, missed the deadline to be included. The company was worth $4.3 billion as of the May 7 market-close. A couple weeks later, retail traders – mobilized on social media investing platforms like Reddit's Wall Street Bets – forced a record rally in the stock. The company was worth $28.3 billion on Wednesday.
Another 56 stocks alongside GameStop will likely join the reorganized Russell 1000 Index when it's officially reconstituted after the market close on June 25, Bloomberg reported, citing research from Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
GameStop and AMC are currently listed on the Russell 2000 and have ballooned to the highest-valued stocks as a result of their meme-stock status, according to Bloomberg data.
Catherine Yoshimoto, FTSE Russell director of product management, said in a June 4 press release there has been a "resurgence in market capitalizations of small cap companies in the Russell 2000 reflecting the overall bounce back of US equity markets following the COVID-19 recession in early 2020."
Meme stocks, many of which are small- to mid-cap companies, came into the spotlight earlier this year when retail traders drove a record rally in GameStop to squeeze short sellers. Other companies, such as BlackBerry, AMC, and Nokia, also skyrocketed. Since then, more companies have been added to the meme-stock bucket as retail traders continue to drive volatility in fan favorites.