GameStop’s shares were down more than 15% in pre-market trading after the company reported a wider-than-expected sales drop — just hours before a highly anticipated YouTube livestream from star retail investor “Roaring Kitty” was expected to send the stock surging.
The video-game retailer said Friday its net sales tumbled to $881.8 million in the quarter ended May 4, compared with $1.24 billion a year earlier. That was worse than Wall Street expected, with two analysts having predicted sales of $900 million to $1.09 billion, according to FactSet.
GameStop’s net loss narrowed to $32.3 million in the quarter, compared with a net loss of $50.5 million a year earlier.
The company also announced plans to raise more than $3 billion by selling up to 75 million shares, days after it made nearly $933.4 million by selling 45 million shares.
The company was scheduled to post results on June 11, but instead published its quarterly figures on Friday morning, ahead of Gill’s livestream.
Gamestop’s release was devoid of any commentary or quotes from executives, and it said it would not hold a conference call on Friday following results.
Shares of GameStop had soared more than 47% after Thursday’s closing bell as investors geared up for the YouTube return of Keith Gill, the stock influencer whose recent social media posts have sparked a rally in so-called meme stocks.
Gill returned to social media platform X in mid-May after a three-year hiatus, sparking a rally in GameStop’s shares.
The rally cooled before the stock shot up again on Thursday when the “Roaring Kitty” channel on YouTube showed an upcoming livestream scheduled for 12 p.m. ET on Friday.
Gill was a key driver of the rally in 2021 in GameStop and other so-called meme stocks that was fueled by individual investors on Reddit’s wallstreetbets forum.
The shares of other meme stocks — including AMC Entertainment, US-listed shares of BlackBerry and Koss Corp — rose between 6.1% and 13% on Friday.
GameStop said on Friday that first-quarter net sales dropped and announced a more than $3 billion stock offer as it released its quarterly report early, sending the video games retailer’s shares down 15% before the bell on Friday.
The company largely relies on brick-and-mortar stores and has been grappling with customers turning to e-commerce firms for buying video games and collectibles.
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