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Luke Kawa

GameStop rallies as Ryan Cohen’s M&A media blitz spurs buying

GameStop is trading higher again on Monday, up 2% in the premarket, as CEO Ryan Cohen continues his media blitz to tease potential M&A.

Late Friday afternoon, CNBC reported that Cohen wants GameStop to buy a company much bigger than itself, and that if his play works, it has the “potential to make [GameStop] worth several hundreds of billions of dollars.”

That came on the heels of Cohen telling The Wall Street Journal that he was on the hunt for a “big” acquisition that would either “be genius or totally, totally foolish.” Shares rose nearly 5% on Friday.

The CEO was slated to appear on Fox Business for a TV interview at 2 p.m. ET on Monday. Michael Burry — of “The Big Short” fame, who recently revealed that he’s long GameStop — said he’d be publishing a list of suggested targets that the company could potentially acquire ahead of this appearance. However, per Fox Business anchor Charles Payne, the appearance has been canceled because “Ryan is working on something moneumental, and he would not be able to say much.”

This press push marks a big shift for the executive, whose media appearances have been scarce during his time running the retailer. But Cohen needs both GameStop’s market value and EBITDA to rise significantly if he’s going to make any money from running the company. He recently agreed to a package that would tie his pay completely to those metrics and only see him start to receive stock options in the event that GameStop’s market capitalization exceeds $20 billion while also booking $2 billion in cumulative EBITDA from Q1 2026 onward.

On a closing basis, GameStop has exceeded this $20 billion threshold only during its 2021 meme stock mania. And, due to heavy losses from 2019 through early 2022, it’s taken GameStop a full decade to generate its latest $2 billion in cumulative EBITDA.

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SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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