Gamestop shares soar once again after “Roaring Kitty” reveals $116 million stake

GameStop shares soared in premarket trading Monday following speculation that the man behind the meme stock craze owns a large number of the video game retailer’s shares that could be worth millions.

Keith Gill, better known as “Roaring Kitty,” posted a screenshot on the r/SuperStonk forum on Reddit that users on the platform are interpreting as a snapshot of the company’s stock and the call options Gill holds on GameStop. The image suggested that Gill might own 5 million shares of GameStop that were worth $115.7 million at Friday’s closing price.

Additionally, Roaring Kitty on Sunday night posted an X-shaped photo of a reverse card from the popular game Uno. There was no text accompanying the image.

“Like a meme in pop culture, a reverse UNO card acts as the ultimate comeback that flips the script for someone,” according to for WikiHow.

Former MassMutual financial analyst Gill in late 2020 encouraged individuals on Reddit to invest in GameStop and encouraged amateur retail investors to buy GameStop shares during the meme stock craze. He did this by posting on Reddit discussion forums and creating YouTube videos about the strategy, gaining a large following in the process. But in 2021, Gill revealed that he had lost $13 million in one day of its investments in GameStop.

GameStock shares jumped more than 87% in premarket trading and opened at $32.35 per share.

“If these gains hold, the stock would add around $8 billion to its market capitalization,” Nigel Green, CEO of financial services firm deVere Group, said in an email. “These super-fast, super-high, headline-grabbing numbers will likely attract another huge wave of interest and therefore capital. I wouldn’t be surprised if the stock is worth $100 billion by the end of Monday due to the frenzy.” “

Gill’s Roaring Kitty posts over the weekend come about three weeks after he resurfaced online for the first time in three years. He did this by simply posting an image on the Roaring Kitty account on X of a man sitting in his chair, marking the end of his hiatus. This post was followed by several others featuring various comeback-themed movie videos as well as uploaded songs. Its reappearance caused the price of GameStop to soar.

GameStop in 2021 was a video game retailer struggling to survive as consumers quickly switched from discs to digital downloads. Wall Street hedge funds and major investors were betting against it, or shorting its shares, believing that its shares would continue a drastically downward trend.

GameStop experienced a decline in sales amid an industry-wide shift from game cartridges to video game streaming and digital downloads, but with the help of meme stock investors last March, the company made its first profit in two years. Before that, the company had recorded seven consecutive quarterly losses. In January of this year, GameStop reported its first annual profit since 2018.

Last September, GameStop named Chewy founder Ryan Cohen as its new CEO. In its most recent quarterly results in March, GameStop said it eliminated an unspecified number of jobs to help reduce costs. The Texas-based company reported revenue of $1.79 billion, compared to $2.23 billion the year before.

Gill was also sued in 2021, accusing him of profiting from “deceptive and manipulative conduct” in promoting GameStop shares. After appearing before Congress to explain the phenomenon of meme stock, its presence on social media has dwindled to non-existence.

—The Associated Press contributed to this report.