Retail investors talked up five hot stocks this week (March 23 to March 27) on X and Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets, driven by retail hype, Iran war, earnings, AI buzz, and corporate news flow.
Robinhood Markets Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD), Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), Arm Holdings PLC ADR (NASDAQ:ARM), Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META), and GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME), spanning investing, crypto, streaming, semiconductors, social media, and gaming, reflected diverse investor interests.
Robinhood Markets
- HOOD’s board authorized a new $1.5 billion share repurchase program, replacing the prior one and adding over $1.1 billion in capacity, to be executed over roughly three years this week. This signaled management confidence amid 37% year-to-date stock slump despite strong 2025 revenue and crypto growth. The announcement was paired with a new $3.25 billion revolving credit facility led by JPMorgan.
- Some retail investors were looking for an entry point below the price of $69 per share.
- The stock had a 52-week range of $29.66 to $153.86, trading around $69 to $72 per share, as of the publication of this article. It rose 57.28% over the year, fell by 42.23% and 37.90% over the last six months and year-to-date, respectively.
- HOOD had a weaker price trend in the short, medium, and long term, with a solid growth ranking, as per Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings.
Netflix
- NFLX announced this week that it is again raising prices across all its streaming plans. The monthly rates will climb by at least $1, citing expanding investments in original programming and live events. Political figures like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) criticized Netflix Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:NFLX) latest price increase, saying that the hike was followed by receiving a “$2.8 BILLION payout from Paramount.”
- Some retail investors were joking about the hike, saying that they “defaulted” on their NFLX subscription after the price hikes.
- The stock had a 52-week range of $75.01 to $134.12, trading around $92 to $95 per share, as of the publication of this article. It declined by 3.86% over the year and 22.91% in the last six months. The stock was down just 0.47% YTD.
- NFLX had a strong price trend in the short term but a strong trend in the medium and long terms, with a good quality ranking as per Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings.
Arm Holdings
- ARM unveiled its first in-house Arm AGI CPU—a data-center chip for AI/agentic workloads—marking a major strategic shift from pure IP licensing into selling its own silicon, this week. CEO Rene Haas highlighted committed customers, including Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META), OpenAI, Cloudflare, SAP, and others, while forecasting the new chip could generate roughly $15 billion in annual revenue by 2031, driving explosive growth in Arm’s data-center business.
- Some retail investors were bullish on the news of ARM making its own chips.
- The stock had a 52-week range of $80.00 to $183.16, trading around $153 to $158 per share, as of the publication of this article. It advanced 55.39% over the year, 2.42% in the last six months, and 39.64% YTD.
- Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings showed that ARM had a strong price trend in the short, medium, and long terms, with a poor value ranking.
Meta Platforms
- META was in focus this week, as it was found liable in a landmark social media addiction case. The ruling stated that its platform design contributed to harmful and addictive use among young users and that it failed to adequately warn of those risks. Additionally, Meta is laying off several hundred employees across multiple divisions, including Facebook, global operations, recruiting, sales, and its Reality Labs unit.
-Some retail investors were disappointed with the stock’s performance, following a slew of negative updates.
- The stock had a 52-week range of $479.80 to $796.25, trading around $546 to $552 per share, as of the publication of this article. It was down 10.38% over the year, 26.38% over the last six months, and 17.05% YTD.
- META maintains a weaker price trend over the short, medium, and long terms, with a solid growth score as per Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings.
GameStop
- GME was dominated by its fourth quarter earnings release after market close on March 24, which showed a 14% revenue decline to $1.10 billion, missing estimates, amid the ongoing shift to digital gaming and weaker hardware sales. Though the company beat on adjusted EPS of $0.49 vs. the expected $0.08, with expanding gross margins and profitability improvements in its remaining business. The standout highlight was the massive cash pile reaching ~$9 billion in cash, equivalents, and marketable securities, funded largely by prior convertible notes and free cash flow, fueling retail speculation around a potential major acquisition despite CEO Ryan Cohen providing no forward guidance or conference call and remaining silent on M&A plans.
- Some investors were a little bearish on GME following its mixed earnings.
- The stock had a 52-week range of $19.93 to $35.81, trading around $21 to $24 per share, as of the publication of this article. It declined by 20.45% over the year, 14.61% over the last six months, but it was up 12.35% YTD.
- According to Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings, GME was maintaining a weak price trend over the medium term but a strong trend in the short and long terms, with a good growth ranking.
Retail focus blended meme-driven narrative with earnings outlook and corporate news flow, as the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq witnessed negative market action during the week.
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