(Bloomberg) — GameStop Corp. shares jumped after the Reddit account that drove the meme-stock mania of 2021 posted what appeared to be a $116 million position in the game retailer.
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The June 2 screenshot by Keith Gill, who goes by DeepF— Value on Reddit, shows five million shares bought at $21.27 per share. It was the account’s first post in three years. The screenshot, which also included 120,000 call options worth $65.7 million due to expire on June 21, couldn’t be verified. The options would allow him to buy the stock at $20 per share.
GameStop shares rose to $37.90 on Germany’s Tradegate, 64% above Friday’s close.
On social media platform X, Gill, using his account handle Roaring Kitty, also posted an image of a UNO reverse card, which is used by players in the game to change the card-pickup direction. The post had attracted more than 4.5 million views in about five hours since its publication at about 8 p.m. Sunday New York time.
“Recent renewed interest in meme stocks, coming as the main US indices struggle to make new highs, is a sign of excessive over exuberance and is more likely a negative portent given the rising headwinds in the markets,” Robert Lea, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, said.
Gill had largely been silent on social media since he rallied day-traders on Reddit in 2021 to buy the stock to push back on short sellers, arguing then that the company was poised to “reinvent” itself as a premier gaming hub.
In mid-May, he returned to X with an image of a video gamer leaning in, fueling anticipation that he will actively return to the market.
GameStop shares have fallen more than 50% since a two-day rally triggered by his mid-May post. The stock famously soared more than 2,000% in early 2021, bringing the meme-stock frenzy into the broader public consciousness.
In his last previous post on Reddit on April 16, 2021, Gill posted a screenshot that showed he held 200,000 GameStop shares, or about $30.9 million worth at the time.
Gill posted his latest Reddit post on r/Superstonk subforum on Reddit, which is “a place for theoretical discussions about GameStop stock.”
—With assistance from Subrat Patnaik.
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