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.
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.
