Investing

Midday Meme Stock Report for 9/16: Aterian, IronNet, TMC, Vinco Ventures

Paul Ausick

Published: September 16, 2021 1:12 pm

U.S. markets were sagging Thursday, with all the major indexes down by around 0.4%. Kind of surprising given this morning’s outstanding report on retail sales. Every sector was trading lower, with materials, energy and consumer defensive stocks performing the worst.

Among meme stocks, there were one big winner and one big loser. The day’s midday winner was IronNet Cybersecurity Inc. (NYSE: IRNT). The company had no specific news, but the stock was by far the most talked-about today on the WallStreetBets subreddit. Most of the comments reflect the enthusiasm one would expect for stock that has nearly doubled in less than a week.

Aterian Inc. (NASDAQ: ATER) continues to give up the gains it made on Monday. The shares have dropped about 90% of the gain the stock posted on Monday. The company’s short interest indicated that it was a highly ranked candidate for a short squeeze this week. But if a bull didn’t take profits by Monday’s closing bell, the profits were gone by noon Tuesday.

TMC the metals company Inc. (NYSE: TMC) continued to soar on big volume. The company came public less than a week ago in a SPAC merger. TMC plans to mine an undersea deposit of metals, including cobalt, copper and manganese, that can be collected from the ocean floor with little to no environmental impact. All the metals are contained in what are known as polymetallic nodules and are in high demand for use in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.

Vinco Ventures Inc. (NASDAQ: BBIG) stock traded at high volumes again Thursday, and with a decent gain already posted for the day. Since August 20, the stock was up about 268%, but that represents a drop of more than 30% over the past five trading days. About 26% of the company’s total float was sold short, nearly a third higher than the short interest in mid-August.

IronNet traded up about 30%, at around $41.40 in a 52-week range of $9.36 to $45.81. The high was posted in the morning. Nearly 37 million shares had traded so far on Thursday, far above the daily average of about 2.4 million.

Aterian was down nearly 12% to $9.98, in a 52-week range of $3.04 to $48.99. The average daily trading volume is around 14.4 million, and 10.2 million had changed hands on Thursday.

TMC traded up about 20.8% to $12.08, in a 52-week range of $8.31 to $15.39. Nearly 33 million shares had traded for the day, more than three times the daily average of 8.9 million.

Vinco Ventures was about 7% higher, at $8.72 in a 52-week range of $1.11 to $12.49. The average daily trading volume is 42.3 million shares, and about 73 million had traded.