GameStop shares fell for a second straight day on Monday, continuing a steep decline following comments from stock influencer Keith Gill. Back to YouTube Last week’s share price rally failed to spark new investor interest in the struggling shopping mall retailer.
Gill, known on YouTube as “Roaring Kitty,” held her first live stream in three years on Friday, the day GameStop announced its second stock sale in as many days.
Gill, who has been the architect of GameStop’s stunning rise in shares in 2021, joked about memes and laced his discussion of GameStop with several disclaimers during the livestream, which had been viewed more than 2.4 million times on YouTube by Monday.
GameStop shares, which plunged nearly 40% on Friday after the company reported a decline in quarterly sales, fell about 12% to close at $24.83 on Monday.
GameStop also said on Friday it would sell up to 75 million shares, just days after selling 45 million shares for a profit of $933 million.
Gill acquired 5 million GameStop shares at an average price of $21.274, according to details he posted on social media. He also bought 120,000 June 21 call options on GameStop with a strike price of $20, at $5.6754 per contract. Reuters was unable to verify the size or value of his holding.
On Monday afternoon, options contracts were trading at $6.40 per contract, according to LSEG data.
Other so-called meme stocks also gave up recent gains on Monday, with AMC Entertainment falling nearly 4% and headphone seller Koss dropping 5.9%.
After accounts linked to Gill returned to X.com (formerly known as Twitter), GameStop’s shares nearly tripled in the two days leading up to May 14.
Since then, GameStop shares have given up most of those gains, with the stock price up about 42% so far in 2024.
The video game retailer has been losing money for years as customers shift to online purchases, and the latest quarter was no exception.
