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A GameStop store in Manhattan
Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images
GameStop
The wild ride of stock continued on Thursday. After shaving off a third of its value on Wednesday, the stock roared 53% back to $ 183.75 on Thursday.
The stock’s percentage gain (ticker: GME) was its largest since February 24, when it jumped 104%. More than 50.4 million shares were traded on Thursday, according to Dow Jones Market Data. That is 296% of the average volume over five days and 147% of the average volume over 30 days. The closing profit ranks among the sixth largest rates of increase for
GameStop
officially.
GameStop stock continues to be tied to a network of technical factors, such as short selling, options activity, and retail investor demand on Reddit – as well as any Wall Street pros trading on their comments. Data from short-selling analytics firm S3 Partners shows that 8.6 million GameStop shares have recently been short sold, about 15.7% of the shares available for trading.
GameStop was also joined in profit by fellow meme shares
AMC Entertainment Holdings
(AMC), up 21% to $ 10.94, and
Koss
(KOSS), up 57% to $ 25.80. GameStop stock at $ 183.75 is again above the highest analyst price target reported by FactSet, which is Jefferies analyst Stephanie Wissink at $ 175. She raised her target by 1.066% after the earnings report. The second-highest target is Joseph Feldman of the Telsey Advisory Group, who lowered his target from $ 33 on the news from $ 30 to $ 30.
GameStop reported somewhat disappointing earnings results after the close on Tuesday, although that news came with a trio of new executives from an ecommerce background. In an filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it was evaluating whether the previously announced $ 100 million stock offering would expand in the market.
Separately in the filing, the company disclosed that it expects more directors than previously announced to step down from the board. The company said in January that Lizabeth Dunn, Raul Fernandez, James Symancyk and Kathy Vrabeck were planning to leave, but according to the new filing, Reginald Fils-Aimé, Paul Evans, William Simon and Carrie Teffner will join them.
The board members who are not leaving appear to be Chewy alums Ryan Cohen, Alan Attal and Jim Grube, as well as CEO George Sherman and activist board member Kurt Wolf. GameStop said earlier this month that Cohen is chairing a committee that aims to transform the retailer into more of a technology company. He is assisted by Attal and Wolf on that team.
The company also appears to be selling more computer parts online, a company some analysts have called on the retailer to target more aggressively. Regardless, with its valuation still well above its historical range, the bar is set high for ensuring what would be a historical turnaround.