This article originally appeared on Business Insider.
Spirit Airlines has turned into the latest meme stock in what has been a wild week of trading for the budget airline.
The drama first unfolded last week, when a court blocked JetBlue’s proposed $3.8 billion takeover of Spirit Airlines over concerns about competition in the airline industry.
Following the court decision, Spirit Airlines shares plunged as much as 74% in a three-day period as the company’s deal was in doubt.
Spirit Airlines’ stock price fell as low as $4.04 on Thursday, but has since rallied furiously, partly driven by a retail trading frenzy similar to meme stock rallies seen during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. , during which traders bought shares of companies with questionable fundamentals.
Spirit Airlines shares have since risen 131% from Thursday’s low, hitting a high of $9.34 per share on Tuesday. Helping boost the stock was JetBlue’s decision to appeal the court ruling, offering hope to investors that a deal might eventually go through.
Cumulative trading volume exploded last week, eclipsing more than 512 million shares traded, with multiple trading days seeing more than 75 million shares traded. As an example, Spirit Airlines has 109 million shares outstanding, and its typical daily volume before the court ruling was just 3 million shares.
Online chatter about the stock has increased amid the trading frenzy, with the volume of messages on social media platform StockTwits registering an “extremely high” reading on Tuesday, registering a score of 87 out of 100.
Spirit Airlines shares have also received attention from Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who has been buying shares and posting videos about X over the past week commenting on the recent stock price volatility.
“$SAVE is amazing. LET’S FLY TO THIS COUNTRY!” posted on X.
Despite the recent four-day rally, Spirit Airlines shares are still 42% below their price last week before the court decision.
Internal markets