In this article we present the list of 12 Best Meme Stocks To Buy Now. To skip our detailed discussion of the history of meme stocks, click to go straight to the 5 Best Meme Stocks To Buy Now.
GitLab Inc. (NASDAQ:GTLB), Dave & Buster’s Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAY), and Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR) are some of the best meme stocks 2023 has to offer retail investors according to the current interest levels in those stocks among retail investors.
While there were a few scattered instances in the past of retail traders banding together to collectively drive up the price of a particular security, the meme stock craze didn’t really take off until the height of the pandemic in late 2020 and early 2021.
With millions of people stuck inside their homes, many of whom were now without work, they increasingly turned to investing (and more specifically, day trading) as a way to spend their free time and attempt to make money. Their first major target was the meme stock Gamestop, which skyrocketed more than 20x in value between 2020 and 2021, reaching a market cap of over $22 billion.
Those early meme pioneers, who often found their next meme stock on Reddit, caught the market completely by surprise and were wildly successful as a result. As we reported in 11 Best Meme Stocks To Buy Now, a September 2021 report from Acuitas Investments found that meme stocks significantly outperformed the broader market in early 2021, gaining 110%, and that success carried on throughout the year for several of the best meme stocks, as there were 10 Meme Stocks that More than Doubled in 2021.
That meme stock success coincided with retail investors accounting for a much greater percentage of the overall volume of equities trading in the U.S., as their share rose from about 15% in 2018 to nearly 20% by the end of 2020. By late 2021, that figure has risen even higher, to nearly 25%. Those figures receded somewhat in 2022 as the best meme stocks struggled to duplicate their success from the year prior, though there was “A Sudden Resurrection”: 10 Rebounding Meme Stocks to Buy in August.
As we noted in Reddit’s 10 Meme Stocks Ranked From Best to Worst According to Hedge Funds, retail investors have been flexing their muscles again in 2023, with JPMorgan reporting in February that day trading accounted for 23% of all trading activity in January. Meanwhile, Vanda Research also reported earlier this year that retail investors were pouring a record $1.5 billion per day into the market at the same time that institutional investors have become more bearish, giving retail investors more sway over the market than they’ve had since the height of the meme stock craze.
That makes now the perfect time for retail investors to hunt for a meme stocks list today and uncover the next meme stock to buy. We’ve compiled just such a list for you here.
Photo by Stephanie Klepacki on Unsplash
Our Methodology
The following list of the best meme stocks has been compiled primarily from two sources: the number of stock mentions over the past week on the r/WallStreetBets Reddit forum, which has 13 million active users as of January of this year, and the holdings of the Roundhill MEME ETF, which tracks the performance of meme stocks and which has gained 35% this year.
While several massive companies like Apple, AMD, and Tesla are popular among retail investors, we have focused on smaller companies that retail investors are more likely to move the needle on. We have then ranked those popular meme stocks based on the number of hedge fund shareholders of each (ties are broken by the amount of money hedge funds have invested in each stock).
We follow a select group of hedge funds because Insider Monkey’s research has uncovered that their consensus stock picks can deliver outstanding returns. All hedge fund data is based on the exclusive group of 900+ funds tracked by Insider Monkey that filed 13Fs for the Q1 2023 reporting period.
12 Best Meme Stocks To Buy Now
12. The Beachbody Company, Inc. (NYSE:BODY)
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 7
Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR), GitLab Inc. (NASDAQ:GTLB), and Dave & Buster’s Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAY) are three of the best meme stocks that have captured the attention of both retail investors and hedge funds.
A stock that retail investors alone are far more bullish on is The Beachbody Company, Inc. (NYSE:BODY), which has lost more than half its former smart money shareholders in the past year. Joseph Ravitch and Jeffrey Sine’s Raine Capital is the only fund with a noteworthy long position in BODY as of March 31, owning 37.5 million shares.
The Beachbody Company, Inc. (NYSE:BODY), a microcap health and wellness company, topped its first quarter guidance but experienced a sales decline across all three of its segments, with overall sales plunging by $54 million to $144.9 million. The company’s total subscriptions also fell by 29% year-over-year to 1.96 million.
Baird analyst Jonathan Komp noted back in March that The Beachbody Company, Inc. (NYSE:BODY)’s guidance came in below expectations and lowered his price target on the stock to $0.50 from $1.25, while maintaining a ‘Neutral’ rating.
11. Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE)
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 12
Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE) has fallen to a new all-time low in hedge fund ownership as of Q1, with just 12 funds long SPCE, down from more than 40 less than four years earlier. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors own the largest stake in Richard Branson’s company, owning 727,200 shares on March 31, up by 89% quarter-over-quarter.
Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE) is a long-term bet on the future of commercial space travel, which the company has slowly made a reality, having recently conducted its final test flight. Commercial flights will soon follow, though these will be limited to once-a-month instances in the beginning while Virgin Galactic continues to build out its next generation of ships.
With Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE) currently burning through cash and profitability a distant dream, the company just announced that it raised $300 million and indicated that it would seek to raise another $400 million in short order. Those financial pressures will likely continue to weigh on the stock in the near-term, which is already down over 90% from its peak. Once revenue from space flights begins rolling in however, there could be an appreciable rebound in the stock, which appears to be what retail investors are betting on.
10. Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:HA)
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 16
Airline carriers have frequently popped up on retail investors’ radars over the past three years, with Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:HA) being one of their current airlines of interest. Hedge fund ownership of HA crashed at the height of the pandemic, but has rebounded somewhat since, though it remains well off 2017 levels.
Despite that, overall institutional ownership of Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:HA) is quite high, at 84%, which doesn’t give retail investors a ton of wiggle room to influence the stock price. Hawaiian is enjoying a surge in demand that has led to the company increasing capacity, which seems to have retail investors excited for what’s to come.
Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:HA) beat top and bottom line estimates in Q1, with revenue of $613 million and an adjusted earnings loss per share of $2.17. The company’s profitability has been dragged down by sky-high fuel costs, though it did lower its FY23 economic fuel price per gallon outlook to $2.70 from $2.92.
9. C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI)
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 21
C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) is currently one of the hottest stocks among retail investors, having posted gains of 200% this year. A few different hedge funds were also adding AI to their portfolios in Q1, including Phillippe Laffont’s tech-focused Coatue Management, which bought 1.5 million shares. AI shares were down by 91% lifetime entering the year.
Other than having the coveted AI ticker, it’s unclear what’s attracting retail investors to C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI), as there are numerous red flags in the company’s results. Incredibly, the AI solutions provider lost more money in its fiscal 2023 ($269 million) than it generated in revenue ($267 million), with growth of expenses outpacing revenue growth, so the situation doesn’t appear to be bound for a turnaround any time soon. And despite shares still being down by over 70% from their peak, they nonetheless trade at 17x sales, which is by no means cheap.
Kerrisdale Capital is taking on retail traders when it comes to C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI), as the firm revealed its short position in the stock and penned a damning thesis on the company’s operations in its March 2023 investor letter:
“We are short shares of C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI), a $4 billion market capitalization enterprise software company that has risen from the ashes of its busted IPO based on the misconception that its self-proclaimed “AI leadership” somehow positions it to benefit from Silicon Valley’s current tech theme du jour: generative AI as represented by media obsession ChatGPT. We believe these speculative flames won’t burn bright much longer, as the realities of C3’s poor customer traction, failing sales partnerships, and financial pressures will catalyze what is likely to be a painful reality check.
This isn’t the first time C3 has sought to ride a hot investment theme. The company was originally founded as C3 Energy to develop analytics solutions for public utilities preparing for the emergence of cap-and-trade and smart grids. C3 pivoted in 2016, renaming the company C3 IoT to capitalize on that buzzy opportunity. But management’s master stroke was rebranding operations as C3.ai in 2019 and going public with the “AI” stock ticker, thus securing its place as the default artificial intelligence stock play for the undiscriminating investor despite the bulk of its business coming from relatively dated analytics models built for a very small number of utility, energy, and government customers. C3 is a minor, cash-burning consulting and services business masquerading as a software company, and its true value is a fraction of its current market capitalization…” (Click here to read the full text)
8. Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE:CCL)
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 25
In addition to airlines, retail investors have also shown a keen interest in cruise ship operators over the past few years, with Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE:CCL) being one such stock they’re currently high on. Hedge funds on the other hand aren’t nearly as bullish, with CCL dropping to an all-time low in smart money ownership at the end of 2022 before a slight rebound in the first quarter of this year.
Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE:CCL), the world’s largest cruise line operator, reports its Q2 results on Monday and analysts are expecting strong results, with revenue expected to nearly double year-over-year. That trend is only expected to grow in the second half of this year, with Carnival appearing poised to end its run of unprofitable quarters for the first time in four years.
The Aristotle Global Equity Strategy believes one of Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE:CCL)’s main competitors is better positioned for growth in the coming years, as it revealed in its Q4 2022 investor letter:
“We first purchased shares of Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE:CCL), the world’s largest cruise line, during the second quarter of 2019. At the time, we believed the company was improving in quality, as the industry (and shipyards) had consolidated to a point where returns on capital could increase systematically over time. In addition, cruising is underpenetrated when compared to land-based alternatives. Despite the difficulties faced by the cruise industry during the pandemic, in our opinion, consumer appetite for cruising remains high, with cumulative advanced bookings at the upper end of historical ranges. As discussed below, we believe Carnival’s peer Norwegian Cruise Line is more optimally positioned for the coming years.”
7. SoFi Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOFI)
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 26
There’s been very little hedge fund movement in SoFi Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOFI) over the past six quarters, with funds largely maintaining their existing positions in the company. Jim Davidson, Dave Roux and Glenn Hutchins’ Silver Lake Partners has been SOFI’s biggest shareholder throughout much of that period and owned 31.2 million shares on March 31.
SoFi Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOFI) is another stock that’s had a big 2023, at least partially on the back of strong retail investor sentiment. The digital bank has also been growing at an impressive rate, with its member count hitting 5.7 million at the end of March, a greater than five-fold increase in the past three years.
Analysts are also bullish on SoFi Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOFI)’s opportunity to capture a larger piece of the student loan refinancing pie now that the Fed has ended the student loan freeze. SoFi had just $2.2 billion in student loan volume last year, about 1% of the overall market opportunity.
6. Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD)
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 27
Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) closes out the first part of our list of the best meme stocks to buy now. It’s not surprising to see retail investors back HOOD given their affinity for the free stock trading platform coupled with the stock’s 73% tumble since its went public in the summer of 2021. Hedge funds have alternated being buying and selling the stock in recent quarters, with their overall ownership of Robinhood gradually ticking up throughout that time.
Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) shares are up 18% this year despite the company’s crypto trading volumes cratering 68% year-over-year in May to just $2.1 billion. Still, crypto represents just a small portion of the overall activity on the platform and Robinhood has done a good job of avoiding the SEC’s gaze by limiting how many cryptocurrencies it allows users to trade.
Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) recently purchased no-fee credit card startup X1 for $95 million in a deal that looks to further strengthen its base of product offerings for its customers and help spur additional activity on the platform, which has stumbled of late. Robinhood’s monthly active users fell by 28% year-over-year in May, and despite the surge in retail investor money in the market this year, equities trading volumes on Robinhood were down 15%.
See where meme stocks Dave & Buster’s Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAY), Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR), and GitLab Inc. (NASDAQ:GTLB) rank among hedge funds by clicking the link below.
Click to continue reading and see the 5 Best Meme Stocks To Buy Now.
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Disclosure: None. 12 Best Meme Stocks To Buy Now is originally published at Insider Monkey.