Roaring Kitty, whose real name is Keith Gill, has indirectly helped GameStop (NYSE:GME) raise billions of dollars. Following his return to social media on May 12 — which came after a nearly three-year hiatus — GME stock has surged higher by more than 75%.
On June 7, the video game retailer announced an at-the-market (ATM) offering of up to 75 million shares. Now, that offering has been fully completed, resulting in total gross proceeds of $2.137 billion.
Before that, the company had announced an ATM offering offering of up to 45 million shares on May 17. That offering was fully completed as well, resulting in gross proceeds of $933.4 million. Meanwhile, GameStop’s cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $1.08 billion as of May 4, meaning that its cash pile should be around $4 billion at the moment.
“We intend to use the net proceeds from the ATM Offering for general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions and investments in a manner consistent with our investment policy,” said GameStop.
GME Stock: GameStop Completes 75 Million ATM Offering
GameStop’s large cash pile provides the company with a large degree of flexibility in pursuing its business goals. In normal situations, ATM offerings often result in a decreased stock price, as it brings along the dilution of shares. In other words, more shares result in a reduced ownership stake for shareholders.
However, GME is by no means a normal stock given its strong support from the retail community. GameStop understands this and has taken advantage of its status with share offerings, as it should.
At the same time, GME stock will likely continue to trade in a volatile, unpredictable fashion until at least June 21. That’s the date that Gill’s $20 call options expire. Gill owned 120,000 of these options as of the close on June 10. As of that date, he also owned 5 million shares — bought at an average price of $21.27 per share — and a cash balance of $29.40 million.
If Gill chooses to exercise the options, he would have to cough up $240 million of cash to acquire 1.2 million GME shares. Based on his account screenshots, he doesn’t have anywhere close to that amount of money. Only time will tell what Gill has up his sleeve.
On the date of publication, Eddie Pan 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.
