Grab your Dramamine. GameStop stock is on the move again.
Shares of the video game retailer surged more than 25% in the pre-market Monday before losing some of those gains. As of 11:00 a.m. ET, the stock was still up more than 17%.
The surge follows the company’s announcement that it had made $933 million in the sale of 45 million common shares of its stock. Ironically, the initial announcement of that stock sale earlier this month resulted in the share price falling.
The trampoline-like performance of the company is becoming something of a pattern as retail investors battle short sellers over the meme stock. For the latest round, the social media account Roaring Kitty, the nom de plume of investor Keith Gill, has been leading the charge.
Gill, though, is apparently sitting this round out. His meme-filled Twitter feed has been quiet since May 17, when he posted a meme indicating he was once again planning to go silent. (Before his post earlier this month, he had avoided social media for three years.)
In the past month, GameStop shares are up more than 98%—and they’re up 35% year to date.
GameStop’s problems have hardly vanished, though. When announcing the sale of the additional shares, the company also said it expects first-quarter sales to range between $872 million to $892 million, considerably lower than the $1.24 billion it made in the same quarter last year and below analyst estimates of $1 billion.
Analysts applauded the issuance of new shares, but weren’t any more optimistic about the company’s long-term health.
“We do not believe GameStop can ‘save its way to prosperity’, and expect the mix of software sales to continue to shift to digital and away from physical,” said Michael Pachter of Wedbush in a note to investors earlier this month. “While there will likely be a new Nintendo console next year and an overall lift in software sales from GTA VI, we think GameStop will see continuing sales declines next year as well. Ultimately, the company must deploy its cash productively or continue to hope that it can issue more shares at elevated levels to forestall the inevitable.”
