Meme stocks AMC, GameStop (GME) spike on social media chatter
15:04, 23 March 2022
The two original creator (OG) meme stocks, AMC Entertainment (AMC) and GameStop (GME), are trading higher over the past two sessions on outsized social media mentions.
Fuelling the social media chatter was a series of tweets by AMC CEO Adam Aron and news that Gamestop CEO Ryan Cohen personally purchased roughly 100,000 Gamestop shares at a $102.45 average share price.
“This probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise to those of you who lived through memestonk madness in early 2021, but there was no real catalyst,” noted daily news roundup The Water Coolest. “[W]ell, besides mentions of GameStop on WallStreetBets nearly quadrupling yesterday.”
AMC CEO's mocking tweets
Leawood, Kansas-based movie theatre chain AMC Entertainment stock is trading at $19.05 per share in mid-day trading Wednesday, up 19.4% from Tuesday’s $15.96 opening share price on 52.4 million trades, compared to the daily 6.73 million daily average trading volume. AMC Entertainment shares trade over the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ‘AMC’.
Overnight Tuesday morning AMC’s Aron tweeted, “[n]arrow-minded call our Hycraft investment… ’stupid’… ’idiotic.’ AMC so understands how to raise cash and stretch out debt.” Last week, AMC invested $28m (£21m) in Winnemucca, Nevada-based gold and silver mine Hycroft Mining Holding, a move that spurred mockery in both traditional and social media circles.
Aron followed that up with a second tweet: “A really bad quote for posterity: 'Let them eat cake' — Marie Antoinette. A really good quote for posterity: “'Let them eat crow' — Adam Aron,” at 03:09 EDT (UTC-4).
Aron’s tweets took Hycroft Mining (HYMC) stock along for the ride with AMC, trading up 26.3% to $1.44 per share Wednesday from Tuesday’s $1.14 per share opening price on 22.8 million trades, versus a 31.2 million daily average trading volume. Hycroft Mining trades over the Nasdaq exchange.
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GameStop CEO buys stock
Grapevine, Texas-based video game retailer GameStop, meanwhile is currently trading 53.1% higher to $144.33 per share mid-day Wednesday versus Tuessday’s $96.85 opening share price after Gamestop CEO Cohen reported to the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) the purchase of 99,730 Gamestop shares through a series of transactions via his personal RC Ventures fund.
Reporting after the market close Tuesday, in a series of 13 purchases in a $$96.85 to $108.28 per share range, Cohen scooped up the stock at $102.45 on average, a 47.3% discount to Wednesday’s $150.93 per share high on 10.6 million trades, compared to a 7.66 million daily average trade volume. Gamestop stock trades over the NYSE under the ticker ‘GME’.
“On the GameStop front, there's little to be bullish about, following a piss-poor earnings report which showed a big top line miss,” added The Water Coolest. “While the company did give a timeline on its NFT marketplace, details were about as MIA as your dad during your childhood.”
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