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Trading in Rocket shares was halted several times on Tuesday.
Emily Elconin / Bloomberg
Rocket Companies
Shares were up 75% on Tuesday as the mortgage lender became the latest high-short stock taking out short sellers.
Trading in the Rocket stock (ticker: RKT) was halted three times on Tuesday due to volatility. Shares closed at $ 41.60 for a gain of 71.2%. The company is one of the most short-short stocks on Wall Street, with 39.7% of the float short-short.
The stock’s rise comes on the heels of Rocket’s higher earnings in the fourth quarter of last week. Rocket said it made $ 107 billion in new loans in the quarter, exceeding expectations that demanded between $ 88 billion and $ 93 billion in originals. The mortgage company also announced a special dividend of $ 1.11 per share.
Company stock has been a hot topic
Twitter
and Reddit’s WallStreetBets, the bulletin board at the center of the GameStop frenzy, as of late.
“Rocket Mortgage, why was 38% of this company sold short?” Jim Cramer tweeted from CNBCs Crazy money Tuesday shortly after 2 pm. “It’s a really solid business, maybe not your favorite when prices are on the rise, but it’s managed so well!”
Ihor Dusaniwsky, director of predictive analytics at S3 Analytics, compared Rocket’s price and short trades with recent trading in
GameStop
(GME), MarketWatch reported earlier Tuesday.
Rocket went public last summer in what was one of the biggest IPOs of the year. By Monday’s end of $ 24.30, the stock had gained about 35% from its $ 18 IPO price. to-consumer digital platform should be valued as a mortgage lender – a company sensitive to fluctuating mortgage interest rates – or as a technology company with growth potential. .
As of Tuesday, the 14 analysts covering Rocket stock have an average target price of $ 24.64 and an average rating of Hold, according to FactSet.
With the specter of higher mortgage rates lurking – the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose last week due to rising government bond yields – Rocket management said housing market demand remains strong and interest rates are still low enough to refinance millions. .
“Rates will go up and rates will go down,” said Jay Farner, CEO of Rocket Companies, of the company’s earnings call. “Our real focus is to ensure that we deliver an experience that draws customers and consumers to our funnel and allows us to increase our market share.”
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