Retail traders congregating on Reddit once created an unprecedented short squeeze centered on GameStop (NYSE: GME) and AMC (NYSE: AMC) and, after years of relative quiet, appear to have targeted another beleaguered equity on June 24: Wendy’s Co (NASDAQ: WEN).
Specifically, following a spike in mentions of the fast food chain on forums such as r/WallStreetBets and r/ShortSqueeze, as shown in the data Finbold retrieved from APEWisdom on Thursday morning, WEN shares soared 25% in the Wednesday session.
They rose another 10.02% in the June 25 pre-market to $8.65.
Examining the posts on the relevant subforums shows that, on June 24, user designated ElegantCombination43 posted a call to ‘save Wendy’s’:
My fellow regards. We need to save Wendy’s before it’s too late. If this company goes bankrupt, we’ll all be out of a job!
By press time one day later, the call to action has accumulated more than 21,000 upvotes and 3,700 comments, helping explain the equity’s rapid reversal from the downtrend that has been gripping it since 2023 and that has taken WEN 66% lower in the 5-year chart.
Overall, Wendy’s shares soared 25% during the Wednesday session and are up another 10.02% at $8.65 at press time on June 25.
Curiously, despite the popularity of the post, the instigating user appears to have been banned ‘because OP (original poster) used it to shill a shitty pump fun token,’ per a comment written by the moderator known as OPINION_IS_UNPOPULAR.
How long will the Wendy’s stock short squeeze last?
Elsewhere, Wendy’s upward stock market momentum appears to have persisted into the June 25 pre-market, though Thursday data regarding trending equities on Reddit and similar platforms hints that the short squeeze might be less long-lasting than the ones for GME and AMC.
Specifically, the memory giant and major artificial intelligence (AI) player, Micron (NASDAQ: MU), has overtaken WEN in terms of mentions following the third-quarter (Q3) fiscal year 2026 (FY2026) earnings report that sent MU shares soaring nearly 20% in the extended session.
Similarly, though Wendy’s conversion into a meme stock helped the stock rally, the rapid upsurge only erased losses incurred since January, and the company remains 66% below its 2023 valuation.
Featured image via Shutterstock
