Why this Penny stock is up more than 200% this past week

It has gained about 450% over the past month.

There has been a meme stock-like frenzy around a penny stock over the past week that has lifted the share price more than 200% over the past five days.

The stock is called Opendoor Technologies (NASDAQ: OPEN), which offers an online platform that allows users to buy and sell real estate online – sort of like Carvana (NASDAQ: CVNA), but for homes.

The stock was surging again on Monday, up about 36% to roughly $3.06 per share. Over the past five days it has gone from about $1.00 per share to over $3.00 per share – a gain of some 230%. In the past month it has surged some 450%, rising up from around 50 cents per share.

The catalyst has largely stemmed from the support of a hedge fund manager, Eric Jackson, who heads up EMJ Capital.

One week ago, on July 14, Jackson posted on X that he had take a position in Opendoor stock, saying he believed it could a “100-bagger.”

100-bagger?

A 100-bagger is an investment that grows 100 times. So. That would mean that shares of Opendoor, which were trading at around $1 per share this time last week, would eventually grow to be a $100 per share stock.

Jackson said that Opendoor was giving Carvana “vibes,” referring to the turnaround for that online car seller.

Remember when $CVNA was circling the drain at $3 in 2022? Wall Street was convinced it was going bankrupt. But they cut costs, stabilized, and the stock went up 100x. Now it’s back at a $40B market cap. $OPEN might be on the same path — just earlier then when we first got into Carvana at $11,” Jackson wrote on X.

Carvana stock is currently trading at $342 per share and is up some 68% year-to-date in 2025.

In making his case, Jackson said Opendoor is likely to report positive EBITDA for the first time when it reports earnings on August 5. He also cited its aggressive cost-cutting and lack of national competition in real estate ibuying.

He did note that the company has a lot of debt and that the upcoming earnings “could be a dud,” adding that investing in this stock is not for the “faint of heart.”

Just consider its history. Opendoor’s stock price peaked at nearly $40 per share back in February of 2021 during the GameStop meme-stock days. By the end of 2022 it was down to about $1 per share — so it has already had bouts of extreme volatility.

Indeed, investors need to be very careful when investing in stocks like this, which are more speculative than based on any real earnings or fundamentals. Do you research beyond one analyst or hedge fund manager, and if you take a position, it is wise to keep it small.