Companies Strike While the Stock Market Is Hot

U.S. companies are rushing to cash in on soaring stock prices.

It isn’t just the white-hot market for initial public offerings. Companies are returning to the public markets to issue shares and raise cash from investors at the same time that existing shareholders are tapping the public market to unload their stockholdings at a record clip.

Companies including Zoom Video Communications Inc. and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. have sold billions of dollars of shares this year.

The list of companies tapping the public markets this year is sprinkled with meme stocks that have benefited from the momentum in their share prices such as AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and GameStop Corp.

There have been 556 follow-on offerings, or stock sales by companies or existing shareholders, among U.S. companies this year, the most since 1996, according to Dealogic data. They have raised a total of $133 billion.