GameStop apes are all talk: Webull CEO
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GameStop shares have been circling the bowl since the meme stock frenzy caused shares of the struggling retailer to explode to $500 intraday in late January 2021.
For Webull CEO Anthony Denier, the price action in GameStop (GME) underscores a few things.
"If you see the prices now [for GameStop] — that tells me that diamond hands or apes, I think it's a lot of talk," Denier said on Yahoo Finance Live. "We are seeing our traders and our investors take money off the table in GameStop."
Coming up on the one-year anniversary of the meme stock boom, GameStop shares are doing anything but going higher.
Shares plunged below $100 on Friday for the first time since just before the beginning of the retail stock buying frenzy last January. The stock has crashed some 71% since their Jan. 27, 2021 closing high.
The king of meme stocks — led by new CEO Matt Furlong (a former Amazon exec) — hasn't expanded too much on its desire to morph into a tech company. Details are scant on GameStop's reported push into launching an NFT marketplace.
Furlong has taken no analyst questions on his first series of earnings calls — calls that have been bizarrely brief and absent details of any kind.
Hence, GameStop's stock has tanked even as it still has many supporters in the retail trader community.
"There is a very vocal minority I think of investors that are involved in this GameStop phenomenon," Denier added.
To be sure, GameStop's fundamentals continue to not be great and nowhere suggesting a turnaround is looming.
For the 39-weeks ended Oct. 30, GameStop has posted an operating loss of $201.7 million.
Microsoft's $68.7 billion play for gaming publisher Activision Blizzard isn't helping sentiment on GameStop, either.
"Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard changes the scope of key inputs into our prospective GameStop model. Both companies are key vendors to GameStop. A combo fortifies power over the retailer; could reshape volumes for Activision titles if made exclusive to Xbox; and portends a more rapid transition to cloud-driven IP gaming," said Jefferies analyst Stephanie Wissink in a research note this week.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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