Last night, Twitter user and Reddit celebrity @TheRoaringKitty, also known as Keith Gill, posted one meme of a man leaning forward in a chair.
This morning, that meme has driven GameStop stock to outrageous heights that haven’t been seen in three years, with shares jumping as much as 83% in early-morning trading. It looks like we may be poised to see a new version of the infamous GameStop short squeeze.
As a brick-and-mortar video game retailer, GameStop saw its revenue decline for years as demand for packaged video games dwindled in favor of downloads. But in January 2021, the company’s stock famously enjoyed a surge that reached peaks of more than 1,600%. The outsize gains were sparked when Gill, alongside a number of other Redditors, began posting about the stock on the subreddit r/wallstreetbets.
Interest in the stock was artificially boosted, turning it into a meme stock and initiating a “short squeeze” that had major consequences for hedge funds and short sellers. The whole snafu led to a Congressional hearing and, later, its own movie released by Sony Pictures.
Now, GameStop stock is causing more than a little déjà vu. The company’s shares have inexplicably risen more than 60% this month, and option activity has spiked in the last few weeks. Gill’s return to the internet last night after a multi-year hiatus has only added fuel to the fire. His post has been viewed 10.5 million times, garnering more than 63,000 likes. Many followers are interpreting the cryptic meme as a signal that something big is coming—namely, another short of GameStop’s stock.
Why is this happening now?
This strange development comes just two months after GameStop issued lackluster 2023 financial results. The company reported $1.79 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, compared to $2.23 billion the year before on a shocking 19% decline in sales. GameStop also announced in its 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it had exited its operations in Ireland, Switzerland, and Austria, as well as noting significant job cuts last year. This March, a leading analyst in the video games space told investors that GameStop is fizzling out at a rapid rate.
“GameStop has a likely runway of no more than five years,” wrote Michael Pachter of Wedbush in a note to investors. “The demise of GameStop is outside the 12-month window we use for our price target, but we expect the company’s demise at some point later this decade.”
Just like in 2021, GameStop’s inflated stock prices largely don’t correlate with any actual advancements within the company. What they do demonstrate, though, is that meme stocks are hot again: Shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., Koss Co., and BlackBerry have likewise seen jumps in the last 30 days.