MicroVision
- MicroVision spiked 32% Monday to more than a two-month high as chatter on Wall Street Bets spiked.
- An analyst said MicroVision was Reddit's "new flavor of the month," pointing to the stock's performance since the middle of last week.
- He added though that he doubts MicroVision will become the next GameStop.
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Shares of MicroVision spiked 32% Monday to more than a two-month high as social media chatter on Reddit gathered steam.
MicroVision rose to a high of $23.85, marking a 32% rise Monday. It was last at $22.93 around 1:06 p.m. ET, up around 28%.
MicroVision in the last 24 hours was the most mentioned stock in the popular Wall Street Bets forum, according to data from Quiver Quantitative's tracker, first cited by Benzinga.
Among the trending posts was one posted early Monday morning with over 1,000 upvotes – Reddit's equivalent of likes on other social media – talking about the company's patented Lidar technology for autonomous vehicles. Three other posts with an average of over a thousand upvotes each also mention buying the stock.
Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, called MicroVision the forum's "new flavor of the month," pointing to the stock's performance since the middle of last week.
"MicroVision's four-day rally eerily resembles what happened with GameStop months ago," Moya told Insider. "Potential takeover interest and the possibility of a short squeeze has given this stock enough juice to make a run towards the record highs seen in February."
Moya did clarify that he does not think MicroVision will be the next GameStop, which individual investors in January pushed to intraday highs over $450 from around $20 before the frenzy.
While the volume is there to squeeze some shorts, the senior analyst said MicroVision is missing one vital ingredient that the video game retailer had.
"MicroVision lacks a leader for this stock and since they don't have a 'Roaring Kitty' leading the social media buzz, I remain skeptical that this momentum can persist for much longer," he told Insider.
Roaring Kitty, whose real name is Keith Gill, is the amateur investor who became the unofficial figurehead of the GameStop short squeeze.
Wall Street Bets has been responsible for the jump in the number of "meme stocks", from GameStop to AMC Entertainment earlier this year. The phenomenon illustrated the growing power of retail investors, but also the power of a community mentality that can push stocks higher absent of any fundamental reasoning.
MicroVision is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings this Thursday, April 29.