GameStop (GME) stock sank nearly 40% Friday in highly volatile trading as GameStop filed to sell millions of shares — and more than half a million viewers tuned in for a much anticipated YouTube livestream from "Roaring Kitty," an alias used by bullish retail investor Keith Gill.
The event marked Gill's first live appearance on the channel since the investor helped ignite a meme stock rally in 2021 via his bullish videos and posts about the video game retailer.
The stream kicked off with a video clip of kittens playing interspersed with shots of Gill. He then appeared in front of a screenshot of a Yahoo Finance stock page for GameStop.
"It becomes a bet on the management. In particular, of course, Ryan, f***ng Cohen. Ryan Cohen and his crew. That's what folks should be focused on," Gill said.
He added, "I see enough where I believe this guy may be able to do it." He noted that "nothing on this stream is advice."
Gill also said that the screenshots of GameStop holdings posted earlier this week on social media are his.
"The accounts showing my positions are mine. These are my positions. I'm not working with anybody else. I'm not working with hedge funds," he said.
The stock was halted more than a dozen times Friday amid highly volatile trading. It had been plunging before the YouTube stream in the wake of quarterly results that missed analyst estimates and announced a stock sale.
For the first quarter, GameStop posted an adjusted loss of $0.12 per share versus estimates of a loss of $0.09. Net sales dropped 29% to $882 million versus analyst estimates of $995.5 million. Wall Street was expecting the quarterly results later this month.
The company also filed to sell up to 75 million additional shares. Last month, GameStop sold 45 million shares, bringing in about $930 million in proceeds.
The announcements came on the heels of the stock's 47% surge in the prior session after "Roaring Kitty" scheduled the livestream.
After the market close on Thursday, "DeepF***ingValue," a Reddit handle also linked to Gill, posted a screenshot purportedly showing the user's portfolio ballooning to $586 million, including GameStop stock holdings and unexercised options positions.
GameStop shares have been on a rollercoaster over the past month as Gill reemerged across social media, prompting some calls that Gill should be investigated. The stock rallied 180% over a span of two days in mid-May after "Roaring Kitty" posted for the first time on X, formerly known as Twitter, since 2021.
"The fact that this individual bought short-dated call options on GameStop and then tweeted for the first time in forever — knowing full well that these Reddit WallStreetBets folks would then drive the stock price up ... it is shady," Loop Capital Markets managing director Anthony Chukumba told Yahoo Finance on Thursday afternoon.
Earlier this week, the office of the top securities regulator in Massachusetts confirmed to Reuters it has opened a probe into "Roaring Kitty’s" GameStop trades.
Late Monday, following the user's emergence over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that executives at Morgan Stanley's (MS) E-Trade platform were considering kicking off an account tied to the screenshot. Shares of GameStop fell roughly 5% the next day.
Last month's rally was short-lived, and analysts have warned that the meme action this time around is a far cry from the level of retail inflows seen three years ago.
Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at @ines_ferre.
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