Beyond Meat shares rose by as much as 112% on Wednesday, extending gains from the previous three trading sessions and briefly boosting its share price above $7.
But the rally faded after a volatile day of trading, and the stock ended down roughly 1%, to close at roughly $3.60.
Momentum started to build last week, when a Reddit user helped fuel a wave of purchases, drawing comparisons to other rallies of so-called meme stocks such as GameStop and AMC.
The gains continued after Roundhill Investments on Monday added the company to the bucket of companies owned by its meme stock ETF, or exchange-traded fund. The move appeared to spark a so-called short squeeze: as the stock price surged, the many investors betting against the company were forced to buy shares to cover their losses.
The company also announced a distribution deal with Walmart on Tuesday, further boosting its shares.
“This company was essentially being thought of as going out…
