Let's make one thing perfectly clear: that wasn't Paul Dano.
"I am definitely not Paul Dano, all right," Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, said during a June 7 YouTube livestream. "I don't know if you thought you were gonna tune in today; it was gonna be like Paul Dano."
Related: GameStop stock slide puts Roaring Kitty options stake in spotlight
Gill, the father of the 2021 meme stock frenzy, was portrayed by the actor in the film "Dumb Money," which describes the short squeeze of video game retailer GameStop (GME) that was primarily triggered by users of the r/wallstreetbets segment of Reddit.
"I gotta be honest here," Gill said during the livestream. "I still haven't seen that movie...I've seen some clips but still haven't seen that movie. But, no, I'm not Paul Dano, so I'm sorry to disappoint if that's what you were tuning in to see."
Gill, who resumed posting on his social media accounts after going dark for more than three years, appeared on screen after a 26-minute delay. He was wrapped in bandages and a sling in a nod to the relentless battering that GameStop’s shares had taken that day.
"I think we can all agree GameStop finds itself in a very unique situation just like it did last time," he said. "Not just in the gaming space per se, but you have a company where you have so many people rooting for it, right? They're rooting for it to work out, myself included. How often does that happen?"
The GameStop saga took another strange twist on June 13, when the company's annual shareholders meeting was disrupted as servers crashed due to overwhelming interest.
The meeting was scheduled to begin at 11 AM ET., but many people attempting to access the event received error messages that the page couldn't load.
Analysts call out 'rambling presentation'
A customer service rep for Computershare, which hosted the event, told CNBC that it was seeing a “mass amount” of issues from people trying to access the meeting, which was postponed to a later date.
TheStreet Pro’s Ed Ponsi noted on Tuesday that GameStop had filed a prospectus to sell 75 million shares of its common stock through its at-the-market equity offering program.
He said that GameStop issued new shares to raise capital, adding that the company lost over $300 million dollars in fiscal 2022 and 2023 combined.
Related: Keith Gill’s net worth: How much did the “Dumb Money” investor make on GameStop?
"Good companies earn profits by selling to people who want their products," Ponsi said. "They don’t need to repeatedly issue new shares to keep the business afloat."
Ponsi reminded readers of how, three years ago, Gill famously told the House Financial Services Committee, "I like that stock."
He suggested considering GameStop, the company, and its stock as two different entities.
"Think of a stock as a piece of paper that represents a tiny portion of that company," he said. "Right now, the potential for an increase in demand for shares of GME is high."
"Meanwhile, considering everything that has happened over the past few weeks, the current price is not high," Ponsi said.
He noted that he doesn't have "diamond hands," which signifies a high-risk tolerance.
"I don't like GameStop, the company," he said. "But GME, at its current price, for a trade rather than an investment? I like the stock."
On Tuesday, GameStop announced that it had completed the sale of all 75 million shares for gross proceeds of $2.137 billion at an average share price of $28.50.
"Given that GameStop’s share price closed at $46 on June 6, we had assumed it would complete the sale at an average price of $40," Wedbush analysts said Wednesday.
"Instead, the shares declined precipitously on June 7, reflecting news from Reddit following a rambling presentation by Roaring Kitty (Keith Gill), closing that day at $28," the firm told investors in a research note.
Fund cites 'cult-like shareholders'
Wedbush said that it was lowering its price target to $11 from $13.50 to reflect lower-than-expected proceeds from the share offering.
"Our revised price target reflects roughly $9.50 per share of net cash, plus a going concern value of roughly $1.50 per share," the firm said. "We are maintaining our underperform rating,"
More Retail Stocks:
- Lululemon CEO sounds the alarm on a quiet but dangerous issue
- Popular retailer reportedly aims to sell a troubled brand
- TJ Maxx takes drastic action to stop retail theft
Citron Research, the hedge fund founded by noted short seller Andrew Left, posted a statement on X, formerly Twitter, saying it "is no longer short $GME."
"It's not because we believe in a turnaround for the company fundamentals will ever happen," the statement said, "but with $4 billion in the bank, they have enough runway to appease their cult-like shareholders."
Despite Wedbush setting an $11 target, the firm said, "We respect the market's irrationality. After all, Dogecoin remains a $20 billion entity."
"While the increased share count might temper the mob mentality, Citron will be watching from the sidelines for now. BTW....the Kitty livestream was still an insult to the capital markets," the firm said.
Naturally, such a harsh stance couldn't go unchallenged on social media, and a number of X users cranked up their thumbs to share their feelings.
One person responded, "Mob mentality is hilarious when hedge funds are literally the mob of Wall Street."
"Your investment strategies are an insult to PEOPLE like roaring kitty who will go down in history as the world's best retail trader to ever live," another X-er said. "You will be a two-line sentence in that book. CITRON eventually collapsed due to its own demise anyways."
Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024
