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Oscar Health is the newest retail stock market darling, with shares up 60% this week

Shares of the telehealth company are up nearly 60% this week on no news and lots of love from retail traders.

Luke Kawa

Oscar Health started the week as a $3.6 billion health insurance company, and it’s poised to add about $2 billion to its market cap by the weekend despite a dearth of any apparent fundamental catalysts for the stock.

So, what does Oscar have going for it?

  • Its top line has been growing quite fast: revenues were up 48% in 2023 and 57% in 2024, which has translated into propelled adjusted earnings per share turning up to a peak of $0.92 in Q1 2025.

  • It’s a health insurance company that also bills itself as a “tech” company, continuing a long-standing tradition where executives try to tie themselves to an industry that typically commands higher valuations. Of note: Oscar hails its “continuous hackathon” approach of applying AI to health insurance.

  • The vice chairman of the board, Joshua Kushner, is the younger brother of Jared Kushner — and as we’ve seen in the run-up to and aftermath of the 2024 election, it hasn’t hurt to have decent relationships with the people in or surrounding this administration.

But what does Oscar really have going for it?

  • It’s a new retail trading darling. The stock is one of the most mentioned on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit, per SwaggyStocks.

  • On a related note, volumes have exploded. Nearly 50 million shares changed hands on Wednesday, the second-highest in the company’s history.

  • Similarly, options activity has gone gangbusters, with call volumes hitting a record 152,414 on Wednesday and another 95,000 on Friday as of 10:30 a.m. ET, nearly triple the 20-day average of 33,708.

Anywho, we’re about $3 away from welcoming another Oscar to the world thanks to the stock’s surge. This one probably won’t live in a trash can.

r/wsb screenshot of OSCR position

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(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

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