Shares of videogame retailer GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) rose sharply on Thursday, with an analyst saying that a cryptic tweet by major shareholder Ryan Cohen could be the reason for the stock’s late-afternoon rally.
GameStop stock closed almost 6.6% higher on Thursday at $132.35, after rising to as-high-as $147.87 in intra-day trading. The stock surge came even as Wall Street ended lower on Thursday.
Ryan Cohen, a major shareholder of GameStop and founder of online pet food retailer Chewy Inc. (NYSE: CHWY) tweeted a screenshot of what appeared to be the popular sock puppet advertising mascot of Pets.com.
Pets.com was a company that became a high-profile victim of the dotcom bubble two decades ago. The dot-com enterprise liquidated in November 2000.
A Reuters report quoted Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter as saying that Cohen’s tweet was “as good an explanation as any” for the surge in GameStop shares.
“The core ‘story’ is that he will change the company and reverse its fortunes, so anything he does to reinforce that change… is going to move the stock higher,” the report quoted the analyst as saying.
GameStop has been among the most heavily shorted stocks in recent months. The stock was a darling of the Reddit investor forum r/WallStreetBets and spiked in January as a wave of buying by bullish retail traders forced short sellers to unwind their positions.
GME shares sprang up $5.04, or 3.8%, to $137.39, while those for CHWY stepped back $3.89, or 4.4%, to $83.76.