Top Small Cap Gainers: WKHS, CONN, TELL
3:43 pm Thursday, June 03rd, 2021
Workhorse Group Inc (NASDAQ:WKHS): jumped 28% to $14.72 amid an apparent short squeeze that might have been triggered by members of a prominent Reddit investing group. Workhorse is one of several stocks enjoying unusual rallies this week. Like many of the others, the company was once favored by members of Reddit’s WallStreetBets group — and like many of those other stocks, a significant percentage of Workhorse’s shares have been sold short by investors betting on a decline in its share price.
Those short-selling investors might now be victims of a short squeeze, the term used when a heavily shorted stock surges higher, leading short-sellers to rush to close out (or cover) their short positions by buying the stock. In the past, members of WallStreetBets have triggered share-price surges by buying out-of-the-money call options on heavily shorted stocks; that could be what’s happening here.
Conn’s, Inc (NASDAQ:CONN): stock gained 25% to $29.98 after the rent-to-own furniture retailer blew past Wall Street’s first-quarter earnings expectations.
Conn’s posted net income of $45.4 million, or $1.55 per share on an adjusted basis, compared to losses of $54.6 million, or $1.89 per share, a year ago. Revenue was $363.7 million, up from $317.2 million, almost 15% higher year over year.
Analysts had forecast Conn’s would post earnings of just $0.30 per share on $327 million in sales. Consensus estimates typically exclude one-time items that companies adjust for.
Tellurian Inc (NASDAQ: TELL): moved up 24.60% to $5.39. One of the biggest themes with Tellurian is that it is building energy infrastructure, including a natural gas pipeline and a liquified natural gas export facility. Both will be operated under the name Driftwood. These are big and expensive projects that will take a fairly long time to complete, and the company is still in the early stages of the process.
While management is working on that task, however, it has also been looking to ink deals with potential customers so it can lock in future revenue. That was the big news today, as Tellurian agreed to a 10-year deal to supply energy trader Vitol with LNG from the proposed Driftwood LNG export facility. The contract is projected to generate as much as $12 billion in revenue over its life.
