Roaring Kitty's Comeback Sparks GameStop Chaos

GameStop shares surged more than 72% on Monday after Keith Gill, the trader known as Roaring Kitty who fueled the 2021 meme stock craze, returned to social media following roughly three years of silence.

Gill, a former MassMutual financial analyst, resurfaced on X late Sunday with a cryptic sketch of a man leaning forward in a chair, then followed with video clips that hinted at a comeback.

The stock climbed to about $28.25, still far below its January 2021 record of $120.75, and shares of AMC jumped more than 78% in a parallel rally.

Short sellers betting against GameStop lost more than $1 billion in a single day, echoing the roughly $5 billion hedge funds lost during the original 2021 frenzy.

The renewed interest arrived after GameStop reported its first annual profit since 2018, even as its most recent quarterly revenue fell to $1.79 billion from $2.23 billion a year earlier.

Gill's reappearance shows how much power a single retail figure still holds over a stock that became a symbol of the meme trading era.

The meme rally bought GameStop capital; the operating business still has to earn its keep. The company's September 8 results put quarterly sales at $790.2 million, down from $972.2 million a year earlier, while operating income rose to $160.2 million. Collectibles supplied 45.1 percent of sales, making the mix increasingly different from the video game retailer Keith Gill's audience first rallied around. Store closures and the sale of the French business complicate comparisons. Watch the next quarterly report for whether collectibles growth can offset the shrinking sales base.