Why Virgin Galactic Shares Were Gaining Altitude Tuesday

Shares in Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. SPCE reached all-time highs Tuesday as the stock trended on Twitter and Reddit.

What Happened: Virgin Galactic’s share price gained 16.84%, closing at $42.05, as traders and investors speculated that the space tourism company would be mentioned in the Ark Investment webcast “Ark Big Investment Ideas for 2021.”

Why It Matters: Cathy Wood’s Ark ETF have become wildly popular and for good reason. The ARKK ETF has returned 190% in one year, making it the best-performing ETF in the ARK portfolio.

On Jan. 13, it was reported that Ark plans to add a Space Exploration ETF, ARKX, and this news has left investors excitedly speculating over which stocks will be included. Many traders on Twitter and Reddit are placing their bets on Virgin Galactic.

Over the last three trading sessions, investors following Wall Street Bets on Reddit have managed to drive GameStop Corporation GME shares up 143%, undoubtedly because of the high percentage of short interest in the stock.

At the beginning of the week there looked to be 138.08% short interest in GameStop. With a small 51.56-million-share float, traders working together were able to trigger short covering, which then caused the share price to soar.

It’s interesting to note that the stock with the next largest short interest percentage is Virgin Galactic at 81.53% and a similar-sized 53.65-million-share float.

Photo courtesy of Virgin Galactic.