Not even speculation of a partnership with fellow meme stock trader favorite AMC Entertainment has been enough to arrest the selling pressure in shares of one-time 2021 market darling GameStop (GME).
Shares of the gaming retailer turn self-described tech company have dropped 12% so far in September, far worse than the 2% respective drops in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite. GameStop's stock is also among the laggards of the popular meme stock group this month — AMC's stock has gained 8.5% and Clover Health has tacked on nearly 5%. BlackBerry's stock is down 8% on the month.
GameStop shares are down 46% since hitting a record high on Jan. 27.
The pullback in GameStop stock — at least as far as September goes — coincides with several factors.
First, the stock appears to be receiving less love on the WallStreetBets Reditt platform that made it an icon of retail investors to kick off the year.
The stock has seen plunging popularity among Reditters since mid-August, according to data analyzed by Yahoo Finance from social media monitoring site Swaggystocks. Meanwhile, internet mentions of GameStop have crashed since mid-August.
One could hypothesize the meme trader crowd may be punishing GameStop's new executive chairman and big backer, Ryan Cohen, for a failure to issue a clear turnaround plan. Recent financial results likely haven't helped market sentiment, either.
This month, the company posted an adjusted loss per share of 76 cents vs. a Wall Street estimate of 67 cents with revenue of $1.18 billion, compared to $1.12 billion expected.
Sales rose 25.6% from a year ago on the back of demand for new gaming consoles from Sony and Microsoft. The company also highlighted increased costs in transforming into a tech company, as one culprit for the steep loss.
New GameStop CEO Matt Furlong took no questions on his first earnings call as CEO and shared zero information regarding its business plan.
Not exactly ideal for a stock that continues to trade on hopium than any semblance of fundamentals.
"GameStop's [stock] is already trading over two times next year's enterprise value to revenue. And so it's trading as if it's already going to have a very successful transition, which is something that we just find to be incredibly difficult," cautioned ChangeBridge Capital's founder and CIO Ross Klein on Yahoo Finance Live.
