Video game and electronics retailer GameStop saw its stock take a significant jump on Monday, rising 28.15% at one point. The company’s soaring shares were prompted by a big bet from stock influencer Keith Gill, also known as “Roaring Kitty.”
Gill was in the midst of a GameStop short squeeze in January 2021, which saw the retailer’s stock jump from $17.25 at the beginning of the month to more than $500 per share by the end of the month. It is estimated that his initial investment of $53,000 in GameStop stock ended up being worth $200 million at one point.
Now, Gill is once again betting on GameStop, revealing on Reddit that he made a $116 million investment in the company’s shares. His post indicates that he now holds 5 million shares in GameStop, which represents around 1.8% of publicly available stock.
“Keith Gill is putting his money where his tweets are, and some investors are clearly following his lead and rekindling interest in meme stocks,” said Ben Laidler, global markets strategist at digital brokerage eToro, told Yahoo Finance. “This is having a disproportionate share price impact given the short position in the stock combined with its relatively small market capitalization.”
GameStop closed at $23.10 per share on Friday and has been trading at around $30 per share on Monday. The company’s stock is currently 79.60% up year-to-date.