Investors target American Airlines

American Airlines said Friday that it would issue $1.1 billion in new shares after its stock caught the attention of retail investors waging financial war on short sellers.

Fort Worth-based American said it would issue the new stock through Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Barclays and BNP. American’s stock has increased 18 percent this week after investors on Reddit’s “WallStreetBets” page had noticed that short sellers had targeted the company.

Retail investors have led a revolt against institutional investors over the last week, a move that has drawn in members of Congress and billionaires such as Elon Musk and has even pushed investing platform Robinhood to restrict the new purchase of some of those shares.

Much of the attention has been focused on Grapevinebased GameStop, whose stock has soared since the beginning of the year. But retail investors have also targeted companies such as Express, Blockbuster and Blackberry.