The pandemic darling Opendoor has plunged in price since its IPO.
However, the stock price has surged over 100% in price in recent trading sessions.
Retail traders are piling in after a hedge fund manager announced a bullish position.
A hedge fund manager’s X post, eager retail investors, and some good old-fashioned r/WallStreetBets due diligence have created the perfect recipe for a new meme stock this week.
Opendoor stock has soared 90% in the last five days, with shares of the company now trading at $1.73.
The move is an unexpected reversal for the online home flipper, which went public via a Chamath Palihapitiya SPAC back in 2020 and has largely been discarded by Wall Street as a languishing penny stock.
Once valued at a market cap of over $15 billion and a peak stock price of $35, shares fell from grace post-pandemic as the housing market cooled and the company experienced inventory write-downs. It’s yet to post an annual profit since going public.
Just two months ago, the company received a warning from Nasdaq that it could be delisted after the stock price failed to break above $1 for 30 consecutive days. In June, Opendoor announced a special meeting for later this month to discuss a reverse stock split in the order of 1‑for‑10 or as much as 1‑for‑50 in order to boost the value of its outstanding shares.
What’s driving the latest rally?
A main driver behind Opendoor’s recent rally was a recent X post from EMJ Capital founder Eric Jackson, in which he detailed his firm’s position and investment thesis for the stock, as well as an $82 price target.
The Canadian hedge fund manager is confident that Opendoor is a deep value turnaround company, with the potential to grow revenues from roughly $5 billion in 2024 to $12 billion by 2029.
Jackson cited Opendoor’s cost cutting efforts and market leadership, as well as potential rate cuts as positive catalysts for the stock. He also called for management reforms within the company and better operational execution.
Over the last month, my X impressions have exploded talking about $BTQQF $IREN and $CIFR because everyone is looking for the next $CVNA.
We think we just found another.@EMJCapital has taken a position in $OPEN — and we believe it could be a 100-bagger over the next few years.…— Eric Jackson (@ericjackson) July 14, 2025
In Jackson’s view, the stock has the potential to become a “100-bagger,” returning over 1,000%.
It’s not Jackson’s first time betting on an unloved stock. He’s known for his bullish stance on Carvana back in 2023, when shares of the company were trading at $11. His bullish call paid off, as Carvana is now trading at over $350 a share.
Retail investors answered the call after Jackson posted his Opendoor thesis and revealed his position. The stock’s trading volume is currently nearing 250 million, well above its 90-day average of roughly 85 million, according to Yahoo! Finance data.
As of Thursday morning, Opendoor was the third most trending stock on the site. And even before Jackson’s announcement, investors on r/WallStreetBets had been chatting about the stock, with one user posting two months ago that they had opened a $155,000 position in OpenDoor.
On the investing forum StockTwits, Opendoor is rated “extremely bullish” on the site’s sentiment tracker, with message volume surging over the past 24 hours.
Opendoor also has another hallmark of a classic meme stock: high levels of short interest, with 135.8 million shares, or 22% of its float, loaned to short-sellers. It’s a signal that institutional investors are betting against Opendoor and creates a potential set-up for a short squeeze, where rising prices force short sellers to buy back shares and cause the stock to rally even more.
While retail investors might be betting on a comeback, Wall Street sees a tough path ahead for the stock in the sluggish US housing market. Goldman Sachs gives Opendoor a $0.90 price target and a sell rating.
Read the original article on Business Insider
