GameStop stock jumps as speculation over roaring kittens intensifies

GameStopThe stock price showed this morning, with the video game retailer’s stock price continuing to improve after raising more than $2 billion—and all while traders speculate on the next moves of meme stock influencer Roaring Kitty (aka Keith Gill).

On June 7, GameStop filed to sell up to 75 million shares of its common stock at its market value of $46.55 — which has been inflated over the past two months due to Return of Roaring Kitty. The company announced late Tuesday that it sold the maximum number of shares registered with the SECraising $2.137 billion in the process.

GME jumped 14% in early trading this morning, rising from $29.29 at the open to a daily high of $33.50. However, it has since cooled to $31.35, up 3% on the day since Tuesday’s close.

That’s a big change from the last time GameStop announced it was selling additional stock. In May, GameStop was featured in the to sell 45 million sharesresulting in a decrease in the share price—and Roaring Kitty has left social media again for some time.

All this comes as the company is subject to an internet firestorm fueled by Gill, better known as Noisy kitten or DeepFuckingValue. On Thursday, he posted his GameStop holdings to the Reddit community SuperStonkfueling speculation that he might become a billionaire (at least on paper) if the price continued to rise.

Kitty didn’t reach that peak, however, after one disappointing first quarter earnings report it fell the next day and sent the stock tumbling – all before Roaring Kitty went live on YouTube for the first time in three years. Shares continued to fall over the next few days, with the influencer apparently taking to Twitter mock his misfortune.

However, he has not disappeared like last time. Instead he has continued to post memes on Twitter and gives more updates on Reddit about his GME positions, which are now less than $350 million from last Thursday until the end of the trading day on Monday.

Some GameStop fans and dealers are fretting without a daily inventory reveal on Tuesday, questioning whether he’s still holding his position or has made a move — but a cryptic tweet injected hope into the community.

The GameStop bull posted a meme from the American version of the popular sitcom “The Office” of a young Michael Scott shaking his boss’s hand. This meme, like defined by Know Your Memeused to “express the feelings of meeting an old person when they were young”.

Like many of them Gill memes, it’s unclear exactly what his intentions are with the post. But the costumed boss has the GameStop logo emblazoned on it, and young Michael Scott has a cat sticking out of his front pocket.

Some traders have speculated that this is a sign that Gill is joining the GameStop board. This comes after one An unverified document has circulated on social networkssuggesting that GameStop will expand its board from five to seven members in an alleged move to bring Gill on board.

This is just speculation at the moment. But Gill has become the unofficial face of the company amid the meme stock movement and has delivered significant value to the share price amid its bull run in 2020/2021 and again recently.

And with a claimed holding of 5 million shares, Gill is one of GME’s largest holders, beaten only by a handful of institutional holders and mutual funds since disclosure reports from the beginning of this spring. Whether GameStop will want to make such a move—and whether Gill wants to work from within the company rather than from the outside—remains to be seen.

Edited by Andrew Hayward