AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE: AMC) stock has been getting a lot of attention lately. By far the most talked-about meme stock of 2021, it has risen dramatically in a short period of time. As of this writing (after market close on June 15), it has risen 3,000% for the year.
That’s a pretty astonishing gain for a stock that looked like it was down for the count just a year ago. The COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating effect on movie theatres — the industry that AMC operates in. With lockdown orders sweeping North America, AMC had to close almost all of its locations. Its stock tanked. And for a while, it looked like it would stay down. Until the Pfizer vaccine was announced in November of 2020, there was no telling when the pandemic would end. It was only when the vaccine announcement was made that stocks like AMC began rising.
And rise AMC did! In a year that saw many meme stocks rally, AMC rose the most, easily beating notable multi-baggers like GameStop (NYSE: GME). AMC’s rally has been so extreme, in fact, that many investors have forgotten that the other “meme stocks” even exist. That’s a shame, because many of them are very interesting in their own right. In this article, I’ll explore three meme stocks that AREN’T AMC — starting with a Canadian stock many will be familiar with.
BlackBerry
BlackBerry (TSX: BB)(NYSE: BB) is Canada’s meme stock — a tech company whose stock rose dramatically in January and February. BB didn’t see as dramatic an appreciation as AMC or even GameStop, but it was a pretty big deal earlier in the year. At one point, it was up 300% for the year, but it has given up most of its gains since then.
BlackBerry’s most recent fiscal year was pretty disappointing. In it, revenue and earnings both declined — in fact, earnings were negative. Perhaps the earnings miss was part of why BB wasn’t as successful as other meme stocks this year. Nevertheless, with a vast and growing car software business with some huge corporate clients under its belt, BB is very much a company worth watching.
GameStop
GameStop is the stock that kicked off the meme stock phenomenon back in January. It all started when a Redditor named RoaringKitty noticed that the stock was overvalued and excessively shorted. He discussed his opinions online, and the rest is history.
GameStop definitely has some things going for it. Its main business — physical game sales at retail stores — is undeniably in decline. But the company is also branching out to e-commerce, which helped contribute to its 25% year-over-year sales growth in its most recent quarter.
Nokia
Last but not least, we have Nokia (NYSE: NOK). Nokia is a wireless technology company that used to be the world’s largest cell phone maker. It’s not anymore — the iPhone thing kind of killed its business — but it still has a presence in the industry. Today, Nokia builds a variety of smartphones, Smart TVs and streaming devices.
In many ways, Nokia is similar to BlackBerry — a formerly dominant smartphone company that got crushed when the big U.S. tech players entered the industry. Today, though, it’s very different. Whereas BlackBerry has pivoted away from hardware and toward software, Nokia remains firmly in the electronics industry. In general, Nokia has a reputation as a “has been” company, but that didn’t stop its stock from rising 65% in the first meme stock rally of January 2021.
