Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTDavid MoadelWed, June 24, 2026 at 4:06 PM GMT+2 4 min readQuick ReadWendy's (WEN) stock jumped 31% as a new CFO hire and Reddit's "Save Wendy's" crowd converged on a stock trading near 20-year lows.New Wendy's CFO Steve Cirulis previously drove a 500% share gain at Potbelly (PBPB) alongside CEO Bob Wright, fueling turnaround optimism.Wendy's Q1 2026 same-restaurant sales fell 8% and net income dropped 42%, yet director Peter May bought shares below Wednesday's price.Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Wendy's didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.Wendy's (NASDAQ:WEN) stock is rallying in Wednesday morning trading, with shares up 31% to $8.22 after the burger chain named a new chief financial officer. It's one of the biggest single-day moves the stock has seen in years.Nheyob / Wikimedia CommonsThe spike is coming off deeply depressed levels. Wendy's stock closed June 23 at $6.26, a price the company hadn't traded at in roughly two decades, after a brutal stretch of weak traffic and falling same-restaurant sales.The official catalyst is an executive hire. The bigger force, by all appearances, is a retail crowd on Reddit rallying under a "Save Wendy's" banner and targeting one of the most heavily shorted names in the restaurant group.New CFO Hire Lights the FuseThe Wendy's Company named Steve Cirulis as chief financial officer and chief strategy officer. Cirulis previously held the same dual role at Potbelly (NASDAQ:PBPB), where he worked alongside Wendy's CEO Bob Wright.According to the company, their Potbelly tenure produced a more than 500% increase in share price along with double-digit growth in average unit volumes. Cirulis succeeds Ken Cook, who will remain in an advisory role through July.Wright said Cirulis will play "a critical role as we execute the turnaround of Wendy's." The company named Wright as the permanent CEO in May after a nearly year-long search, so the C-suite is finally settled as Wendy's "Project Fresh" turnaround ramps up.Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Wendy's didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today."Save Wendy's" Meme Army Targets a Short SqueezeThe hire gave traders a reason; the crowd supplied the firepower. Wendy's stock saw more than 14 million shares trade in premarket hours, more heavily than Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), per Barron's. CNBC, citing Swaggy Stocks data, reported that Wendy's climbed to second place among all stocks by mention volume on Reddit, topped the Stocktwits trending charts, and flooded WallStreetBets.Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info