GameStop Wants to Sell High

Retail investors bought low, now GameStop is selling high.

The video game retailer announced plans to sell up to 3.5 million shares of the most-discussed stock of 2021, prompting a dip in its price on Monday. The proceeds would be used to accelerate GameStop’s transition from brick-and-mortar to online commerce.

GameStop — in case you somehow missed this — became an unexpected rallying cry for investors on Reddit’s wallstreetbets forum who drove up the stock price against hedge funds that had shorted the once-moribund stock. By market close on Thursday, its stock price had soared to 11 times its price at the start of the year (and 64 times its price from one year ago).

The company was permitted under regulatory restrictions to sell up to $100 million in stock as of December but held on through the “meme stock” craze — a move that has so far proved prescient.

At its price on Thursday, $191.45, GameStop would make $670 million selling 3.5 million shares, but the stock sale could be stretched out over time, providing variability in its return. The stock price dropped 12% at market open on Monday but had mostly recovered at the time of writing.

As for maximizing its return on the planned stock sale, it’s simply a matter of timing the market for this year’s least predictable stock.