Opendoor Technologies (OPEN +5.56%) stock is jumping today, but not for the same reason it had been shooting higher in recent weeks. Shares of the real estate technology company have rocketed 286% in the last month, including another 14.8% today as of 10:58 a.m. ET.
Much of the recent interest has been from retail investors talking the stock up on message board forums like Reddit. Today's pop comes with real news from the company, though. Opendoor announced today it is looking for a new CEO to spur another phase of growth.
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Warren Buffett may be calling a bottom
Opendoor's e-commerce platform for real estate transactions has struggled alongside the housing market in recent years. Opendoor stock has also trended lower over the past three years until a recent surge.
That surge came from retail investors effectively turning Opendoor into a meme stock. Shares surged 245% in July. Traders on the Reddit WallStreetBets board postulated that the extended drop in the stock could reverse in a big way, and others piled in.
NASDAQ: OPEN
Key Data Points
Now there are signs that the housing slump could also be reversing course, which would also boost Opendoor's underlying business. The company's current CEO, Carrie Wheeler, is stepping down, allowing a new leader to navigate the company into what it hopes is a new growth phase.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway just disclosed new stakes in several housing-related stocks, too. In a Form 13F released yesterday, Berkshire disclosed new buys in homebuilders Lennar and D.R. Horton as well as steel giant Nucor. All three would benefit greatly from a resurgence in housing.
Buffett himself may or may not be directly behind those new investments. Berkshire began buying those names in the first quarter, but was granted permission to withhold that information until now as it built its positions.
Opendoor now seeks a new CEO who can help utilize the company's large data assets and technology to benefit from any resurgence in housing. Investors today believe that the timing could be right.
