GameStop stock booster ‘Roaring Kitty’ is about to make his closely watched YouTube return

Keith Gill, the investor and meme stock booster known by his social media persona “Roaring Kitty,” will hold his first YouTube livestream in almost three years on Friday. The announcement of the livestream alone sent GameStop stock soaring more than 40% on Thursday in anticipation of Gill’s YouTube return.

GameStop shares were down almost 29% Friday morning prior to the start of the livestream, dragged down by GameStop’s disclosure of plunging sales and millions in losses.

Watch live: GameStop stock booster ‘Roaring Kitty’ returns to YouTube

Gill gained national attention during the COVID-19 pandemic for his bullish analysis of GameStop on Reddit (where he goes by DeepF———Value), and drove the first short-squeeze of the video game retailer’s stock in early 2021. At the time, its shares surged more than 1,000% in a matter of weeks.

He kicked off a renewed meme stock frenzy around GameStop stock last month, when he broke his three-year social media hiatus by posting a meme on X that fans interpreted as a signal to start buying up the retailer’s shares.

While the initial meme stock excitement fizzled out faster than it did in 2021, Gill revived it again this week. In a post on Reddit forum r/SuperStonk on Sunday, Gill revealed that he owns 5 million GameStop shares, which would have been worth almost $116 million as of last Friday’s closing price of $23.14 per share. He later posted a picture of the reverse card from the card game “Uno” on X.

GameStop stock is up almost 180% year-to-date.

GameStop stock swings wildly on surprise earnings

Hours before Friday’s livestream, GameStop unexpectedly reported its first-quarter earnings, which had been scheduled for June 11. GameStop’s net sales plunged 28% to $881.8 million in the 13 weeks ended May 4, from $1.24 billion in the same period last year, the company reported before the bell on Friday. It had a net loss of 32.3 million for the quarter, narrower than its $50.5 million in losses a year ago. GameStop had projected falling sales in a regulatory filing last month.

In a separate filing Friday, the company revealed that it is planning to sell up to 75 million additional shares of its common stock. It warned that the common price of its stock “has been extremely volatile and may continue to be volatile due to numerous circumstances beyond our control,” including short squeezes. Last month, the company said it was planning a sale of 45 million additional shares of its class A common stock.

This is a developing story and will be updated.