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Ryan Cohen confirmed he liquidated his entire 9.5 million shares stake in Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY) on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
An amended 13D filing from the SEC confirmed that Cohen’s RC Ventures sold massive blocks of stock and call options over those two days, reaping windfall profits for Cohen.
The sales confirmed yesterday afternoon’s Form 144 filing, which indicated that he was planning to sell the stock. Still, some meme stock speculators were holding out hope Thursday that it was just another head-fake from Cohen to draw short sellers in.
Cohen’s activity in the stock has drawn much criticism. Today, ex-hedge fund manager, Whitney Tilson said he filed a complaint with the SEC about Cohen’s trading in BBBY calling it “like a pump and dump.” Tilson said this is the first time he has ever done this as Cohen’s trading patterns on BBBY “stink to high heaven.” Tilson cited Cohen filed recent Form 3 showing that he had bought far-out-of-money call options that expire in January with strike prices of $60, $75, and $80 per share, multiples of the $10 to $15 share price at the time. Cohen added fuel to the fire by filing an amended 13D showing that he owned 9.45 million shares of BBBY’s stock. Tilson called Cohen’s activity a “total disgrace!”
After falling 20% intra-day, Bed Bath & Beyond is down another 35% after-hours Thursday.
