Three weeks after GameStop came back to earth, the once-beleaguered video game retailer returned to the spotlight with another stock rally and a fresh round of intrigue.
The company’s stock price leapt up 104% on Wednesday, and another 85% in early trading on Thursday.
That put the price right around half of Reddit-fueled highs near $350 in January. The price had since dropped well below that peak but was still two to three times what it was in December, when the company was simply a retailer struggling to keep up with a digital marketplace.
The surge comes on the heels of news that CFO Jim Bell was forced out by the company board, a move GameStop said was unrelated to the recent hubbub.
The gaming retailer’s good fortune is rubbing off. Esports Entertainment Group’s shares jumped nearly 30% when Citron Research Group advised GameStop to buy the gaming betting platform. Another Reddit favorite, AMC Entertainment, had a similar burst in activity, with its stock price rising 18% on Wednesday.
As for Robinhood — although the stock trading platform had to defend itself before Congress in the wake of this saga, the publicity hasn’t hurt its outlook as it moves toward a likely IPO later in the year.
