RC Ventures, the venture capital firm owned by GME Chairman Ryan Cohen, has sold off his stake in Bed Bath & Beyond (3B Home Furnishing), giving him about seven months of 56% of earnings, or $68.1 million in profit. Earlier, when Cohen applied to sell the shares, there were still many posts on the WSB section of Reddit’s “retail investor gathering place” urging retail investors not to rush to sell 3B Home Furnishings.
Shares of 3B Home, already down nearly 20% on Thursday, fell another 27% in after-hours after Cohen sold off. And this is the hallmark feature of Meme (retail investors holding group stocks) – skyrocketing and plummeting.
Despite the deteriorating financial health of 3B Home Furnishings, an influx from retail investors has pushed up the company’s shares in recent weeks. Its net purchases totaled $229.1 million over the three-week period , according to data compiled by Vanda Research .
For retail investors, it was Cohen’s buying that made them willing to “take the bid.” At one point this week, 3B Home’s shares more than tripled from their recent lows in July, but by that time, Cohen had already started to sell.
Between mid-January and early March, Cohen’s RC Ventures spent $121.2 million to purchase 7.78 million 3B Home stock shares, as well as options on 1.67 million shares, according to a regulatory filing. He sold 3B Home Furnishings shares for a total of $189.3 million this week , according to a filing after the market closed on Thursday . As of Thursday’s close, 3B Home was valued at about $1.5 billion.