An obscure company that employs five people and appears to produce negligible amounts of oil and natural gas from a number of sources in Appalachia became the latest Reddit-fueled day trading craze, rising nearly 1,000% to a $ 128 million business in a few hours.
New Concept Energy Inc. got a mention from retailers on the WallStreetBets forum on Reddit one day when brokers, including Robinhood Markets, were trading stocks like GameStop Corp. held after some of the wildest stock swings the markets have seen in recent years.
For a company that produces just 70 barrels of oil equivalent per day and has a board with an average age of 74, that was still enough to push its stock up a whopping 959% to $ 25, the highest level since 2000 .
Has a short interest in New Concept Energy down from 13% earlier this month to 0.3% of its float, according to data from S3 Partners.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday’s meteoric stock performance.
At the end of 2019, New Concept Energy had 153 producing gas wells and 44 non-producing wells, with mineral leases on 20,000 acres, according to regulations filings.
The company lost 46 cents a share in 2019 on sales of $ 590,000, she said annual report.