Today is an excellent day for GameStop (NYSE:GME) — and for meme stocks in general. GME stock soared around 50% this morning after the video game retailer reported an excellent fourth quarter. As InvestorPlace contributor William White reports, the company posted its first quarterly profit in two years and surpassed Wall Street expectations for EPS. GameStop reported revenue of $2.23 billion as well, beating the $2.18 billion projected by analysts.
Of course, that isn’t quite where the company’s revenue stood in Q4 2021. But it has certainly been enough to push GME stock up, although shares have lost some momentum since this morning. As of this writing, GME is up about 40%.
Still, while shares look primed to keep rising, it isn’t all good news for GME investors today. White reports:
“Investors wondering how the company expects to perform in the coming quarters are out of luck. The video game retailer stopped providing guidance when the Covid-19 pandemic started and has yet to bring it back to its earnings reports. Even so, we know what Wall Street is looking for in 2023. That includes full-year EPS of -$1.31 alongside revenue of $5.88 billion.”
It’s worth noting that most Wall Street analysts don’t cover GameStop due to its meme stock status. The few that do aren’t generally too positive, either. About one month ago, Jefferies analyst Andrew Uerkwitz implied that GME was fairly priced at $20, maintaining a neutral stance. Meanwhile, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter maintained his “sell” rating.
That said, institutional investment in GME stock certainly doesn’t seem to be slowing — even if the company isn’t releasing guidance.
Top 5 Investors Betting Big on GME Stock
According to data from WhaleWisdom, the number of funds holding GME stock — 242 — hasn’t changed since the previous quarter. However, the number of 13F shares has jumped from 78.40 million to 85.12 million. Percentage ownership has increased by 9% as well and new positions have almost doubled, spiking from 24 to 43. In addition, increased positions have risen 4% while closed positions have declined by more than 16%. While GME still boasts a fairly high put/call ratio at 1.18, the ratio has still fallen more than 9% from the previous quarter.
Let’s dive into the top investors maintaining large positions in this controversial meme stock, even as another possible short squeeze looms.
- RC Ventures: 36.40 million shares. The firm of noted meme stock investor Ryan Cohen last increased its position in GME stock by 400,000 shares.
- Vanguard Group: 24.66 million shares. Vanguard added 500,711 shares in Q4 2022.
- BlackRock (NYSE:BLK): 21.97 million shares. BlackRock added 1.02 million shares in Q4 2022.
- State Street (NYSE:STT): 7.25 million shares. State Street added 325,424 shares in Q4 2022.
- Geode Capital Management: 3.49 million shares. Geode added 176,876 shares of GME stock in Q4 2022.
On the date of publication, Samuel O’Brient did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
