GameStop reports another quarter of slumping sales while its stock outperforms
Say it 3x fast… GameStop stock spiked yesterday after the old-school video-game retailer reported that quarterly sales fell 20% from a year ago, coming in at $860M. That’s a worse sales drop than the 9% decrease it posted for Q3 a year ago, though it swung to a $17M profit last quarter. Falling revenue has been a trend at the strip-mall retailer as more folks stream or download games off the internet (no need to visit a GameStop for the latest “CoD”). Still:
Meow rally: The gaming icon saw its stock briefly surge in June after Keith “Roaring Kitty” Gill’s social accounts roared back to life.
Cryptic: Last week GameStop shares spiked after the meme-coin influencer posted an altered image of a Time magazine cover featuring a blank media player.
Same game… During a 2020 livestream, Gill gave GameStop “a non-zero chance” of successfully reinventing itself, and that chance appears about as slim now. GameStop stock is up 62% this year, though not much has changed in its biz. The updates: as its stock price rose this year, it raised billions in cash by selling 100M+ shares. It announced a trading-card grading partnership with Collectors’ Professional Sports Authenticator division, and brought on Collectors CEO Nat Turner as a board member. Meantime, it’s shuttering locations: in September the retailer said it was identifying more stores to close.
Prices don’t always = performance… GameStop is closing stores, its sales are plunging, and there’s no clear turnaround strategy in sight. Still, shares are up over 60% this year — more than double what the S&P 500 has gained. It’s even outperforming Apple for the year.