GameStop shares surged Friday after Keith Gill, whose relentless cheerleading under his online handle "Roaring Kitty" has spurred retail investors to back the struggling video game chain, revealed plans to appear on YouTube for the first time in three years.
The Roaring Kitty YouTube channel, which has more than 700,000 subscribers, revealed that Gill has scheduled a June 7 livestream. The post sent GameStop's stock price, which trades under the ticker symbol "GME," rocketing up more than 40% before it receded to $4141, a 31% gain, in late-day trading.
GameStop's stock also spiked three weeks ago when Gill initially resurfaced online after a long hiatus, posting a cryptic image on X of a sketched man leaning forward in a chair. Gill largely vanished from the retail investor scene in 2021 after testifying before Congress about the "meme stock" craze.
Gill, a financial analyst turned social media influencer, certainly appears to have skin in the game. Earlier this month, he posted a screenshot in Reddit forum showing that Gill's holding in GameStop shares topped $115 million — a stake that would be even larger given the latest upturn in the stock.
Gill's return to social media has also propelled gains in other downtrodden stocks embraced by amateur investors, including AMC Entertainment and BlackBerry.
Yet Gill's rabid social media following is also attracting scrutiny. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that E*Trade was considering booting Gill from the trading platform because of concerns about possible stock manipulation related to his GameStop activities.
