Video game retailer GameStop Corp.’s shares are up 12% early Wednesday (March 23) after surging more than 30% Tuesday, in part because Chairman Ryan Cohen said he had purchased 100,000 shares of the company’s stock Tuesday (March 22).
RC Ventures LLC paid between $96.81 and $108.82 for the shares it purchased. Cohen now owns 9.1 million GameStop shares, or 11.9% of the company, according to a Tuesday (March 22) report in The Wall Street Journal.
“I put my money where my mouth is,” Cohen tweeted as word of the investment continued to spread.
I put my money where my mouth is
— Ryan Cohen (@ryancohen) March 22, 2022
In late 2020, Cohen — who co-founded Chewy — criticized GameStop for its lackluster efforts to move into eCommerce. He joined the company’s board in January 2021 and became chairman in June. GameStop named Amazon alum Matt Furlong its chief executive in June.
GameStop’s stock has been on a roller-coaster ride since early last year, when it was part of a social-media-fueled trading frenzy. Shares peaked at $350 last year before steadily dipping to as low as $78.11 when investors were concerned about the company’s performance in the last three months of 2021.
GameStop reported a loss in its most recent quarterly earnings call last week, but boasted a better-than-expected $2.25 billion in revenue.
Related: GameStop Membership Rewards Up, But Stock Down as Investors Question Future
GameStop’s fiscal 2021 fourth-quarter and yearly earnings were highlighted by a 32% year-over-year growth in its subscription-based membership program, PowerUp Rewards Pro.
GameStop, which has seen its stock drop about 55% in the past six months, trumpeted the growth of PowerUp Rewards Pro year-over-year to 5.8 million members for the three-month period that ended Jan. 29.
The company also announced that it will launch a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) by the end of July to close out the first half of fiscal 2022.
