Best Meme Stocks to Trade in 2024

Meme stocks are having a revival. After three years of silence, the central figure in the meme stock craze of 2021 that sent GameStop shares skyrocketing, Keith Gill, alias Roaring Kitty, made a cryptic post on the social media platform X on Sunday night.

Just like back in 2021, the post sparked huge gains in GameStop shares. In addition to the video game retailer, the stock prices of AMC Entertainment, Blackberry, Hertz and SunPower all surged on Monday and Tuesday. Meme stocks are a risky bet, at best, because they’re often unprofitable, and meme investors could easily see their shares crash in a moment of volatility.

A few stocks are considered meme stocks just based on their popularity with social media users. Caution must be taken when considering trading or investing in these, as meme stocks remain highly speculative. However, there are some meme stocks, often heavily shorted, that have the potential of being good long-term investments.

We complied a list of 10 meme stocks that are trending right now. Because they are targeted by short sellers and speculators, it’s impossible to tell, though, whether their share price is going to go up or down. Read on to see our picks of the meme stocks worth watching:

A Closer Look at the Top Meme Stocks

Let’s take a deep dive into the popular target stocks by short sellers you could consider trading in 2024. But be aware of the high risk and do your due diligence before you do.

1. Novavax – Sanofi Lifeline Could Prove Painful for Shorts

The US biotech, which makes protein-based vaccines, is one of the most shorted shares on the market with more than $50 million of short positions. Its agreement with Sanofi (NASDAQ: SANOFI), announced on May 10, gives it an influx of cash to develop its pipeline. Investors deemed the deal so significant for the biotech firm’s fortunes that Novavax’s stock price jumped 50% when it was revealed. Sanofi said it’s paying Novavax $500 million upfront along with an additional $700 million when development, regulatory and launch milestones, as well as sales milestones are reached, and royalties. The deal takes advantage of Sanofi’s sales staff, distribution and sales network.

Novavax grew revenue and net income in the first quarter, while paying down debt. It posted a 16% increase in revenue from a year earlier to $94 million, and a net loss of $148 million compared to a loss of $294 million in the same year-earlier quarter. The company also raised its guidance to say it expects revenue and Sanofi payments of between $970 million and $1.17 billion this year.

The company said it’s on track to deliver an updated COVID-19 vaccine for the 2024-2025 vaccination season and is ready to launch its phase 3 trials for its COVID-19-Influenza Combination (CIC) vaccine candidate and standalone influenza vaccine.

Your capital is at risk. Past performance does not indicate future results.

2. Arbor Realty Trust – Ultra-High Dividend Has Some Worried

More than 40% of the mREIT’s shares are shorted, and the company has been the target of multiple negative reports by short sellers. The biggest concern for Arbor Realty Trust is its delinquencies have risen among multi-family developers, forcing it to modify almost $1.9 billion in loans in the January to March quarter. The company thrived when interest rates were low, but with rising rates have come increased vacancy rates for their customers. However, if the Fed cuts interest rates, that would spur new interest in Arbor.

There are plenty of reasons to buy and hold the Arbor Realty shares. While its revenue fell 44.5% year over year to $66.6 million, and EPS of $0.31 was down 32.6% over the same period last year, the company has performed well over the past five years. It’s the only mREIT to grow both book value per share and its dividend by double-digit percentages over that period, with the book value per share rising 36% and its dividend climbing 52%.

Thanks to the short-seller reports, Arbor’s dividend yield has soared above 11%, and it’s still well covered at around 91% in payout ratio, well within the safety mark for an mREIT. The stock is trading for less than 10 times earnings, so while its earnings have declined, it’s still a profitable company selling at a discount.

Your capital is at risk. Past performance does not indicate future results.

3. Robinhood – Riding Along the Meme Stock Phenomenon

Robinhood is a meme stock, not because it is heavily shorted, but because of its close connection with the meme stock craze. The discount broker that offers a commission-free trading platform is a favorite among younger retail traders and so, when meme stocks rise, Robinhood benefits. The company has included features that appeal to beginner investors, including the members of the meme stock community, such as fractional shares and options and crypto trading in some locations.

In the first quarter, which doesn’t even reflect the current meme jump yet, Robinhood had a record quarterly revenue with $618 million, rising 40% year over year, as well as record EPS of $0.18, compared to a loss per share of $0.57 in the same period last year, and record net deposits of $11.2 billion, with more money transferring in than out from every major brokerage firm.

The successful meme stock also benefits from the renewed interest in cryptocurrency. Its assets under control (AUC) jumped 65% year over year to a record $130 billion in the quarter, due to higher equity and crypto valuations and continued net deposits.

Your capital is at risk. Past performance does not indicate future results.

4. Reddit – Turning Huge User Base Into Revenue

Reddit is another that is benefiting from the meme stock hype, even though the stock isn’t heavily shorted. On Monday, Reddit’s shares climbed along with other meme stocks, rising 8.7% on Monday and then on Tuesday, rising to its highest level since March 27, shortly after its IPO on March 21.

Reddit is actually benefiting from another trend right now. Beside the rise in users due to the meme stocks resurgence, it should benefit from AI deals due to its large user base. It recently signed a $60 million annual licensing deal with Alphabet (GOOG) to train its large language models (LLM).

Reddit’s daily active users grew 37% year over year to 82.7 million during its first quarter as a public company. It also saw revenue rise to $243 million, up 48% over the same period last year. Its net loss increased to $575.1 million, compared to a $60.9 million loss in the same period in 2023, thanks mainly to expenses connected with the IPO. However, its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), adjusted for one-time items, was $10 million compared to an EBITDA loss of $50.2 million in the first quarter of 2023.

Your capital is at risk. Past performance does not indicate future results.

5. ImmunityBio –  Breakthrough Bladder Cancer Drug Drives Optimism

The US biotech focuses on immune-based treatments and vaccines. In April, the US Food and Drug Adminsitration (FDA) approved Anktiva, which activates the body’s T-cell immune response, to treat non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), in combination with the Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine. It’s the 10th most commonly diagnosed cancer globally, with a target group of around 85,000 in the US alone.

There’s a reason more than 34% of its shares are being shorted. The clinical-stage biotech’s losses are increasing, and it isn’t profitable yet. However, Anktiva has the potential to be a first-in-class therapy. Evaluate, a pharmaceutical data intelligence firm, said the immunotherapy has the potential to reach $878 million in annual sales by 2028.

ImmunityBio said it planned to launch Anktiva by mid-May, so its sales didn’t impact its first-quarter earnings. The company reported it had a net loss in the quarter of $134.1 million compared to a loss of $116.6 million in the same period a year ago. That doesn’t count $100 million the company said it is owed from Oberland Capital Management because of Anktiva’s approval. ImmunityBio said that the retail price for the immunotherapy would be $36,000 per dose and the regimen would likely require more than a dozen doses over a two-year period. At that price, its financials could rebound quickly.

Your capital is at risk. Past performance does not indicate future results.

6. Tesla – High-Priced Stock Continues to Surge in Popularity

Every time analysts count out Tesla, investors lift the stock’s price back up. Economic historian J. Bradford DeLong recently said in a commentary in Project Syndicate, that Tesla founder Elon Musk is the person who makes it a meme stock.

“For all the current Tesla shareholders planning to offload their holdings in the next couple of years, everything hinges on the company succeeding as a meme stock, and Musk is diligently working toward that goal,” DeLong said.

In the first quarter, Tesla reported revenue of $21.3 billion, down 9% year over year, and EPS of $0.34, down 53% from the same period last year. The company also endured a rocky rollout of its Cybertruck that included a recall. However, the company retains a loyal customer base and, unlike other meme stocks, remains profitable.

Your capital is at risk. Past performance does not indicate future results.

7. Alibaba – Solid Revenue Growth, Lower Profits After Overhaul

There are good reasons to be wary of Alibaba stock, as China’s government isn’t hesitant about cracking down on its technology companies. There’s also the concern that current tensions between the US and China could adversely affect the e-commerce company’s future.

There are good reasons for liking the meme stock. One, it is the largest e-commerce site in China, and there are a lot of people (more than 1.4 billion) in China. The company had a solid year despite a rough economic year for the country, so if China’s economy improves, Alibaba could really do well.

In fiscal 2024, it had revenue of 941.2 billion Chinese yuan ($130.4 billion), up 8%, while net income climbed 9% to 71.3 billion yuan ($9.8 billion). However, the company’s fourth quarter was a distinctly mixed bag, with revenue rising 7% year over year to 221.8 billion yuan, but net income falling 96% from the same period last year to 3.3 billion yuan. Some of the lower profits can be attributed to a tumultuous year where it changed its CEO and did a dramatic restructuring that included a spinoff of its cloud computing business. Nevertheless, Alibaba signaled that it’s confident about its future by increasing its stock repurchase plan by $25 billion through March of 2027.

Your capital is at risk. Past performance does not indicate future results.

8. Marathon Digital – Concentrating on Crypto Growth

Marathon, a crypto mining company, has more than 21% short interest, and considering the volatility of the crypto industry, that’s not surprising. However, Marathon is seeing tremendous growth. The biggest concern is that so much of its business is connected to Bitcoin, so that makes it riskier.

In the first quarter, it reported record first-quarter revenue of $165.2 million, up 223% year over year, and net income climbed 184% from the same period last year to $337.2 million. It has been helped by a more than 35% rise in the price of Bitcoin this year.

The company increased its data center portfolio, bringing its gigawatt capacity to 1.1 million gigawatts. Marathon also introduced Anduro, a new multi-chain Bitcoin layer-two network aimed at accelerating Bitcoin development and adoption.

Your capital is at risk. Past performance does not indicate future results.

9. SoundHound AI –  Connecting Cars with Improved AI Chat Abilities

SoundHound AI, which specializes in voice artificial intelligence, is increasing its business through several key partnerships. It has recently said it was working with Perplexity to give better responses to voice queries in automobiles, pairing SoundHound’s AI voice assistant with Perplexity’s AI-powered conversational answer engine.

SoundHound also has a partnership with Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) to allow NVIDIA DRIVE to use SoundHound Chat AI as a combination in-vehicle voice platform that would give responses to questions such as “Why is that light flashing?” or “What does the auto hold button do?” even when there was no internet connection. chipmaker Nvidia revealed in February it had bought 1.7 million shares of SoundHound.

SoundHound’s first-quarter revenue rose 73% to $11.59 million from a year earlier, though it also had a loss per share of $0.12, compared to a loss of $0.14 per share in the same quarter a year ago. SoundHound AI expects full-year 2024 revenue of between $65 million to $77 million, up 43.5% at the midpoint. Despite its financial growth, its lack of profitability has led to 20% short interest in the stock

Your capital is at risk. Past performance does not indicate future results.

10. Super Micro Computer – Huge Growth, Huge Opportunities

Super Micro provides IT products for AI, Cloud, Storage and 5G/Edge, basically everything in tech that is seeing huge growth right now. The stock isn’t just a meme stock, but an enormously popular stock overall with its shares growing by more than 188% just this year. It has worked closely with chipmaker Nvidia on building IT storage clusters and server ranks.

The company’s revenue jumped 200% to $3.85 billion in its third-quarter of fiscal 2024 EPS climbed to $6.56 from $5.10 in the second quarter and $1.53 in the same quarter last year.

Super Micro really sparked excitement among investors with its full-year guidance. It says it expects full-year revenue of between $14.7 billion to $15.1 billion, up 109% at the midpoint, and full-year EPS of between $23.29 and $24.09 at least doubling from $11.43 in 2023.

Your capital is at risk. Past performance does not indicate future results.

What Is a Meme Stock?

A meme stock is a company whose shares rise in popularity and price, primarily due to online hype and social media buzz rather than traditional financial analysis. Online communities, such as Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets, often champion certain meme stocks in the hope of creating a short squeeze, where short sellers are forced to scramble to buy and cover their positions when the stock is driven higher.

The name “meme stock” comes from the phenomenon of viral memes that trend online. Meme stocks can take off in a dramatically short period and plummet just as quickly. While not all meme stocks are of companies that are underperforming, the term is generally attached to soaring stocks whose price rise isn’t supported by its earnings or profitability.

The History of Meme Stocks

Irrational exuberance over certain shares has been around as long the fear of missing out has had an impact on markets. The best early example was the rise and fall of the Tulip Mania in the Dutch Republic from 1634 to 1637.

However, modern meme investing got its start when Robinhood introduced commission-free trading in 2015. Other brokerages soon followed suit and that opened the door for younger, less-affluent investors.

During the early part of the pandemic in 2020, more people were stuck at home due to lockdowns. People had more extra cash with little to pend it on. A lot of them developed an interest in retail investing, fueled by social media sites such as Reddit or Stocktwits.

Some of those investors, in a concerted effort, targeted heavily shorted companies, such as GameStop, AMC Entertainment, BlackBerry and Bed, Bath & Beyond, to create a short squeeze. That means, they forced hedge funds that were consistently short-selling these stocks anticipating that their prices would drop, to cover their positions, as the exact opposite happened. They had to buy these shares to limit their losses.

AMC Entertainment, in early 2021, for example, was close to bankruptcy, thanks to COVID-19 lockdowns and needed capital. Its shares fell to as low as $1.91. From Jan. 25 to Jan. 27, the stock was prominently talked about on Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets and retail investors urged each other on to bet against short sellers of the stock, triggering a short squeeze that lifted it by more than 300%. AMC was able to capitalize on its stock’s rise by selling additional shares and ultimately was able to stave off bankruptcy.

What triggered the latest meme stock hype was a new social media post by investor Keith Gill, nicknamed “Roaring Kitty,” who helped create the first meme surge in 2021. His reemergence after a three-year hiatus stoked rallies in the prices of the original and some new meme stocks that had high levels of short interest.

One caveat, though, is that hedge funds are better prepared for dealing with short squeezes this time around. Many funds use algorithms to capture price momentum and are better suited to jump in and benefit from the rallies before they are well known, then get out before a stock’s price collapses.

Are There Meme ETFs?

Buying exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is like buying a basket of stocks, which helps improve an investor’s diversification. That’s especially important when buying meme stocks, as individual meme stocks can be quite volatile and risky. Some of the better-known ETFs:

VanEck Social Sentiment ETF (NYSEARCA: BUZZ): It tracks the BUZZ NextGen AI US Sentiment Leaders Index, following 76 large-cap US stocks that have a high degree of positive investor sentiment, based on aggregated online sources and alternative data.

The Amplify Video Game Tech ETF (NYSEARCA: GAMR): The first ETF to target the video game tech industry has several meme stocks, including GameStop.

SoFi Social 50 ETF (NYSEARCA: SFYF): It follows the SoFi Social 50 Index and is composed of the top 50 most widely held US listed stocks on SoFi Invest, where the companies are measured by the number of accounts that invest in that stock.

Fidelity Crypto Industry and Digital Payments ETF (NYSEARCA: FDLP): It isn’t exclusively a meme stock ETF but it holds 39 companies that have been popular meme stocks, such as SoFi Technologies. The ETF tracks the Fidelity Crypto Industry and Digital Payments Index.

Where to Get Meme Stock Tips and Insights

A good source of meme stock information is AltIndex, a subscription-based service that uses alternative data and artificial intelligence (AI) to rate stocks. AltIndex updates its data throughout the day. Because it uses alternative data sources, including social media, it is an excellent source of information on meme stocks.

Begin with the company’s constantly updated ranking of top meme stocks over the past 24 hours, which rates companies using AI score, updated every half an hour with real-time share prices. The AI score relies on several datasets, to show which stocks are likely to be active. Stocks are scored from 1 to 100, simplifying the selection for investors. AltIndex relies on web searches, customer satisfaction ratings, social media, and app downloads, to help it analyze a company.

AltIndex has more than 10,000 members and provides more than 100,000 stock insights and alerts each day and has a strong win rate of 75% from its AI stock picks.

You can try AltIndex’s Starter Plan for just $29 a month and receive stock picks directly to your email, as well as many other useful features.

Conclusion

Meme stocks come in all shapes and sizes, and while there is a lot of risk with any stock that has seen huge share gains in a short time, being a meme stock doesn’t inherently make it a bad long-term investment. Some of the best meme stocks are just seeing huge share price growth and investors have caught on to that.

The key to investing in meme stocks is to do it based on extensive research, not with a FOMO outlook. These shares are highly speculative and a lot of caution is warranted. Make sure the reason for a stock’s surge is sustainable and based on fundamentals rather than hype around a stock. If the growth is warranted and the company has a business edge, a high price-to-earnings ratio alone isn’t a reason to stay away from a promising stock, though it makes sense to wait for a dip before buying it.

References

https://ir.novavax.com/press-releases/2024-05-10-Novavax-and-Sanofi-Announce-Co-exclusive-Licensing-Agreement-to-Co-commercialize-COVID-19-Vaccine-and-Develop-Novel-COVID-19-Influenza-Combination-Vaccines

https://ir.arbor.com/static-files/674d3ee1-2b3e-48f7-ab1a-2d701a9513f0

https://s28.q4cdn.com/948876185/files/doc_financials/2024/q1/Q1-2024-Earnings-Presentation.pdf

https://ir.immunitybio.com/news-releases/news-release-details/immunitybio-announces-fda-approval-anktivar-first-class-il-15?field_nir_news_date_value[min]=

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/elon-musk-tesla-meme-stock-by-j-bradford-delong-2024-05

https://data.alibabagroup.com/ecms-files/1532295521/afdeaf9e-5dd7-4a18-8ff0-968a6807f09d/Alibaba%20Group%20Announces%20March%20Quarter%202024%20and%20Fiscal%20Year%202024%20Results.pdf

https://investors.soundhound.com/static-files/39a19cd5-8215-4551-9bbc-320759d6a9d4

https://s25.q4cdn.com/632471818/files/doc_financials/2024/q3/Exhibit-99-1_2024-03-31-Earnings-Release.pdf

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Jim Halley

Editor

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Jim Halley

Editor

I am an experienced journalist who has also worked as an editor and writer at the Savannah Morning News, Salt Lake Tribune, USA Today, Stars and Stripes, and The Motley Fool. I spent the first half of my career in sports journalism, but in recent years have switched to writing about my other passion, stocks, particularly healthcare, real estate and consumer staples stocks. I've won numerous journalism awards from the Associated Press and state press associations and have been a judge for the Georgia Sportswriters Association. I've written one non-fiction book, Just One More Time, about Georgia Southern football, and…

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