GameStop (GME.N) shares surged 21% on Monday after “Roaring Kitty” Keith Gill, the influential stock trader behind the 2021 retail trading frenzy, returned to Reddit with a post showing a $116 million investment in the troubled videogame retailer.
The stock was on track to add $4.6 billion to its market value after initially climbing as much as 75% earlier in the session.
By 10:12 a.m. ET, approximately $2.7 billion worth of shares had changed hands, surpassing the $2.3 billion in Apple (AAPL.O) shares, according to LSEG data.
This marked Gill’s first post in three years from his Reddit account, where his screenshots of bullish GameStop trades had previously triggered a rush of demand for “meme stocks” in 2021.
These stocks, often companies with weak fundamentals, gained a cult-like following due to social media hype among retail traders.
The screenshot posted on Sunday showed a GameStop holding of 5 million shares, or 1.8% of its publicly available stock.
Gill’s last post in April 2021, titled “final update,” had shown a holding of 200,000 shares worth $30.9 million.
Sunday’s post also revealed $65.7 million worth of call options expiring on June 21 at a strike price of $20.
The stock closed a volatile month at $23 on Friday, about 33% higher since Gill began sharing cryptic posts and memes from his “Roaring Kitty” account on X.com in May, sparking speculation about his return to sharing trades online.
“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 eToro.
“This is having a disproportionate share price impact given the short position in the stock combined with its relatively small market capitalisation.”
GameStop was the second-most traded stock on retail brokerage Fidelity, with fellow meme stock AMC (AMC.N) also jumping 20%.
Monday’s surge put GameStop short sellers on track for nearly $1 billion in paper losses, according to Ortex Technologies.
Reuters could not verify the screenshot, and Gill did not respond to requests for comment on Reddit or email. Meanwhile, Reddit shares jumped 6.8%, and retail trader-focused brokerage Robinhood (HOOD.O) gained 5%.
Last month, GameStop raised $933 million by selling shares to capitalize on a meme stock rally, although shares are still nearly 50% below their May peak and down about 70% from 2021 highs.
The $7 billion company faces slowing sales as consumers shift from buying physical game disks to downloading or streaming games digitally.
GameStop is expected to post first-quarter results on June 11, after warning last month that first-quarter net sales would drop to between $872 million and $892 million from $1.24 billion a year ago.