GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) shares are up more than 35% Monday morning. The reason for the move has people asking: Are meme stocks back?
What To Know: GameStop shares climbed nearly 40% in early trading Monday after social media sensation Keith Gill, best known as "Roaring Kitty" on YouTube or "DeepF***ingValue" on Reddit, made his return to social media after a three-year hiatus.
Gill helped spark the meme stock movement in early 2021 that saw traders across Reddit's r/WallStreetBets band together and relentlessly buy shares of GameStop, which ultimately led to a short squeeze in the stock. The same playbook was applied to several different so-called meme stocks in the wake of the GameStop frenzy, most notably to AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc (NYSE:AMC).
Over the weekend, Gill posted an image on X featuring a drawing of a person sitting up and leaning forward in a chair, which is a popular meme among gamers that indicates things are beginning to get serious, according to Reuters.
pic.twitter.com/YgjVqtgcNS
— Roaring Kitty (@TheRoaringKitty) May 13, 2024
Sunday's post is Gill's first movement on social media since 2021, and it's sparking renewed buying interest in several meme stocks. The original meme stocks GameStop and AMC are leading the way. GameStop shares were up 39.5% at $24.43 at the time of writing, while AMC shares were up 15.8% at $3.37. Other meme names were also getting a lift like Koss Corp (NASDAQ:KOSS), which was up nearly 13% and BlackBerry Ltd (NYSE:BB) which was up about 5% at last check.
GameStop and AMC were trending on Stocktwits at the time of writing. GameStop, Oklo Inc (NYSE:OKLO), NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), AMC and Trump Media & Technology Group Corp (NASDAQ:DJT) were the top five trending stocks on r/WallStreetBets at the time of publication.
GameStop shares are up more than 50% in May and nearly 75% over the last month. According to Benzinga Pro, about 25.8% of the float is currently sold short. Although the short interest is meaningful, it's still well below the highs of around 140% in 2021.
"There's been a few attempts where investors have tried to justify that it's the return of meme stocks, but we haven't quite seen that materialized," Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com, told Reuters.
Photo: JJBers from Flickr.