‘Breast stock’ icon Ryan Cohen has infuriated some Redditors after packing an eight-figure payday as he dumped his entire activist stake in struggling retailer Bed Bath & Beyond.
Billionaire Chewy.com founder and GameStop president Cohen has announced that he is leaving his position at his firm, RC Ventures. Cohen made a profit of $68.1 million on the stock and sold it after just seven months, gaining 56% on his original investment. Bloomberg reported.
Meanwhile, individual investors and others pouring money into Bed Bath & Beyond held the bag as the company’s shares tumbled 40% Friday. Some Redditors have angered Cohen for his hasty debut.
“After reading what Ryan Cohen has just done, I hope you all understand that he is not one of us.” Reddit user Ronpm111 He wrote “WallStreetBets” forum.
“Cohen showed his hand. He’ll fuck everybody to get richer. He’s setting you up,” the user added.
“Ryan Cohen = died for me. GME = dead for me. I’m selling all my bags,” another Redditor Rock_Bottom00v aforementioned.
“Ryan is a jerk, this move is a joke and most of you are stupid. It was fun watching this from the sidelines,” another user wrote.
The Post reached out to Cohen’s firm, RC Ventures, for comment.
Bed Bath and Beyond shares has increased recentlyIt rose as high as $30 this month after Cohen bought an activist stake and demanded a change in the company. While retail investors snatched GameStop and other so-called “meme stocks” during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cohen has built a large following on WallStreetBets and other online forums.
“Someone bought it at $30 and someone lost $12 per share to enrich Ryan Cohen,” Michael Pachter, stock research analyst at Wedbush Securities, told the Wall Street Journal. “This is a retail investor buying the stock.”
Volatility in the company’s share price meant wild swings for investors. One investor, Jake Freeman, a 20-year-old student at the University of Southern California, later became an internet folk hero. earned $110 million by selling his stake in the retailer.
“I didn’t expect such a vicious rise,” Freeman told the Financial Times. “I thought this was going to be a game that would last more than six months… I was really surprised that it went up so fast.”
It’s unclear what prompted Cohen to change his position at Bed Bath & Beyond and sell. pushing the CEO Due to the company’s below-average performance in June. Before leaving his role, Cohen successfully pressured the company to add three new board members and also urged the retailer to sell itself.
Ryan Bennett, a 43-year-old farm worker in Beloit, Wisconsin, told Reuters He said his investment in Bed Bath & Beyond dropped more than $40,000 after he bought the stock based on Cohen’s previous actions.
“I feel like I took my hard-earned money out of my pocket and put it in Cohen’s pocket,” Bennett said.
