What happened
On Friday, several posts in the shockingly influential WallStreetBets Reddit community talked up medical device maker Senseonics Holdings (SENS 0.85%), which promptly shot up to close the day 10.8% higher.
So what
The previous day, posts appeared in the subreddit and elsewhere on Reddit extolling Senseonics' virtues and hastening to mention its considerable short interest (nearly 26% of float). So in sum, in the eyes of the WallStreetBets crowd, we've got a company with real potential that is also a juicy candidate for a short squeeze.
Image source: Getty Images.
Senseonics concentrates on glucose monitoring systems for diabetics -- a large addressable healthcare market. It's a young company that is catching fire a bit, with Q1 revenue leaping to $2.85 million from only around $36,000 in the year-ago period (although its net loss deepened considerably, mostly because of a big derivatives-related accounting charge).
But recent news from Senseonics is quite promising. Last week, the company released results from a 180-day study showing that is Eversense continuous glucose monitoring system showed a hypoglycemic alert detection rate of 93% for its primary sensor, and 94% for its secondary one.
Now what
But of course, WallStreetBets isn't necessarily focused on the long-term potential of a stock; many community members are after the quick money that can result from a short squeeze. While Senseonics could have a bright future, as a target of that community it's likely to be volatile in the coming days, so perhaps it's best avoided by cautious investors for now.
