Bed Bath & Beyond tumbles after influential investor exits

NEW YORK (AP) — The newest meme stock on Wall Street, Bed Bath & Beyond, is tumbling even further in after-hours trading Thursday after a high-profile activist investor confirmed that's he's bailed out of the stock.

Ryan Cohen, the co-founder of Chewy who helped ignite a couple of meme stocks to jaw-dropping heights, confirmed in a filing with U.S. regulators that he no longer owns any shares or options related to Bed Bath & Beyond's stock. The move disappointed hordes of smaller-pocketed and novice investors, who had piled into the stock amid hopes Cohen could turn around the company's struggling finances, or at least send its stock on a moonshot like GameStop's early last year.

Bed Bath & Beyond's stock dropped nearly 35% in after-hours trading, after it had already sank nearly 20% during the regular session to close at $18.55. The steep drop follows a monstrous run from $5.77 at the start of the month to $23.08 on Tuesday, which Wall Street analysts saw as irrational.

Cohen sold all of the nearly 7.8 million shares he held in Bed Bath & Beyond on Tuesday and Wednesday, at prices between $18.68 and $29.22. He also sold options tied to the stock. In March, he first revealed that he had built a nearly 10% stake in Bed Bath & Beyond, with shares purchased at prices between $13.08 and $17.10.

Investors on Reddit's WallStreetBets forum, a hub of discussion for the stock, were trying to gauge their next steps in what one commenter called “BLOOD BATH AND BEYOND."

“How many times are ‘meme traders’ going to keep mindlessly gambling on false prophets instead of actually learning how to invest and trade?” one commenter wrote.

Cohen was a big reason many investors piled into Bed Bath & Beyond, particularly after his earlier investment in GameStop...