Retail Army Defies Bond Logic to Drive Revlon Stock 600% Higher (1)

With Revlon Inc. spiraling toward bankruptcy last week, Justin Brain, an insurance salesman in South Florida, saw a rare opportunity to make a killing. Brain, 37, snapped up $40,000 of stock in the cosmetic giant.

He was thinking about companies like Hertz Global Holdings Inc., which filed for bankruptcy in 2020 and then became a retail-trader darling, or GameStop Corp., the struggling video-game retailer that came to epitomize meme-stock mania.

“I thought, screw it, maybe I’ll hit it big,” Brain said.

Then the bankruptcy hit — owner Ron Perelman finally turning to court protection with Revlon listing about $3.5 billion of debt — and Brain panicked, dumping his ...