By Johann M Cherian, Shashwat Chauhan and Juveria Tabassum

(Reuters) -Beyond Meat's ( BYND ) highly shorted shares jumped about 130% in premarket trading on Wednesday, fueled by a fresh wave of buying among retail traders who have sparked meme stock frenzies on Wall Street in recent years.

The company has struggled with weak sales as demand dropped for its plant-based meat patties over the past four years, triggering job cuts and measures to manage its debt pile.

With short interest at about 81.8% of its free-float, Beyond Meat ( BYND ) is one of the most shorted stocks in the market, according to data from analytics firm Ortex.

That was up from about 64% last week, when its stock dropped to an all-time low after a notes exchange offer that helped the company avoid near-term default at a significant stock dilution.

"Loss-making, heavily shorted, meme-able ticker and easy to understand, the classic meme cocktail," said Ivan Cosovic, managing director of Germany-based data group Breakout Point.

"BYND now has hundreds of mentions across retail channels. Whether this goes to infinity and BYND or just serves up another slice of fake-meat humble pie, retail is clearly having meme-fun again."

Beyond Meat's ( BYND ) shares were last up 86% at $6.75.

CLASSIC SHORT SQUEEZE

Since October 16, when the stock hit a low of 50 cents, it has risen nearly seven-fold, driven also by increased interest from retail traders who piled into some beaten-down consumer names including Krispy Kreme, as well as GoPro.

Beyond Meat's ( BYND ) shares soared 146% on Tuesday, after it announced a deal with Walmart to expand distribution of some of its products at the big-box retailer.

Retail traders bought nearly $35 million worth of Beyond Meat ( BYND ) stock on Tuesday, the biggest single-day purchase on record, as well as about $620,000 worth of Krispy Kreme, the biggest one-day buy since late July, according to Vanda Research data.

"The current flurry of activity (in Beyond Meat's ( BYND ) shares) seems to have more to do with a short squeeze than any real shift in investor appetite for the stock," said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.

Beyond Meat ( BYND ) shares have gained attention from retail traders this week on popular investor-focused social media platforms including Reddit's ( RDDT ) r/WallStreetBets and stocktwits.com.

Nearly 400 million shares of the plant-based meat maker exchanged hands during premarket trading, more than four times the 50-day moving average.

Business Insider reported that a trader named Dimitri Semenikhin was behind the enthusiasm as he lauded the company through posts on the X.com handle Capybara Stocks.

Capybara Stocks, the X.com handle of Semenikhin, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shares of Krispy Kreme, which has dealt with weak demand as well as a failed McDonald's partnership this year, were up about 21% in premarket trading on Wednesday.

Roundhill's MEME exchange-traded fund was up 5% before the bell. The ETF tracks a series of retail-favorite stocks, with shares of Beyond Meat ( BYND ) having the most weight at around 10.2%.

(Reporting by Juveria Tabassum, Shashwath Chauhan and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)