Shares of Reddit-darling GameStop climbed on Thursday, rising more than 20% at one point in yet another unexplained move that left market watchers looking for a possible catalyst.
GameStop shares closed up 6.4% at $131.93 after earlier hitting $147.87, their highest since a surge in the heavily shorted stock late last month.
One analyst and some Twitter users pointed to a cryptic tweet by Ryan Cohen, a major shareholder of GameStop and founder of e-commerce firm Chewy.com, as a plausible reason for the move, although Reuters could not independently determine causation.
The late afternoon rally in GameStop began roughly around the time that Cohen tweeted what appeared to be a screenshot with the puppet dog advertising mascot of Pets.com, a famous casualty of the dotcom bubble two decades ago.
Cohen and GameStop had no comment on the tweet.
GameStop shares closed up 6.4% at $131.93 after earlier hitting $147.87, their highest since a surge in the heavily shorted stock late last month.
One analyst and some Twitter users pointed to a cryptic tweet by Ryan Cohen, a major shareholder of GameStop and founder of e-commerce firm Chewy.com, as a plausible reason for the move, although Reuters could not independently determine causation.
The late afternoon rally in GameStop began roughly around the time that Cohen tweeted what appeared to be a screenshot with the puppet dog advertising mascot of Pets.com, a famous casualty of the dotcom bubble two decades ago.
Cohen and GameStop had no comment on the tweet.
A GameStop rally last month has also been linked to a Cohen tweet. A Feb. 24 surge in the company’s shares began roughly around the time Cohen tweeted a picture of a McDonald’s ice cream cone with a frog emoji.
The tweet left some GameStop bulls wondering online whether it was a veiled message that Cohen would fix GameStop’s business, like the fast-food chain modernized its ice cream machines.
GameStop has become one of the most visible of the so-called meme stocks that are closely followed on sites such as Reddit’s popular WallStreetBets forum.
The stock surged more than 1,600% in January after a wave of buying forced investors betting against the company’s shares to unwind their positions, before paring most of those gains the following month.
Cohen’s RC Ventures activist firm reached a settlement with GameStop in January, giving Cohen seats on the company’s board.
