- GameStop’s stock has exploded in the past week, surging more than 800%.
- Chewy cofounder Ryan Cohen’s 12.9% stake, acquired in August 2020 for $76 million, is now worth nearly $3.1 billion.
- Members of a Reddit forum dedicated to playing the stock market have boosted the stock to an all-time high.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
One month ago, GameStop announced to shareholders that it would close more than 1,000 stores by the end of March.
Since then, the video-game retailer’s stock has skyrocketed by more than 1,900%, with some 800% occurring in the past week alone. The company can thank a Reddit forum, named “Wall Street Bets,” for this massive rally. The forum has more than 2 million members, largely committed to buying the stock at this point in time. (It didn’t hurt that Elon Musk tweeted “Gamestonk!!” during after-hours trading on Tuesday).
Redditors are posting screenshots of their paper gains from the rally, but the biggest winners aren’t boasting online. GameStop’s three biggest individual shareholders gained $4.1 billion combined since January 20, as calculated by Insider using SEC filings.
The biggest beneficiary from the stock surge is Ryan Cohen, the cofounder of pet-food e-commerce firm Chewy, who made a $76 million investment in GameStop last August. His 12.9% stake is now worth nearly $3.1 billion — up from $352 million on January 20 — based off a price of $340.42 at 1:00pm ET Wednesday. The 35-year-old sold Chewy to PetSmart for $3.35 billion in 2017, which was the largest e-commerce acquisition in history at the time.
Cohen also recently joined GameStop’s board.
The second-biggest winner is Donald Foss, who bought a 5.3% stake last February for about $12 million. His stake is now worth $1.2 billion. The founder of subprime auto lender Credit Acceptance Corp has a total fortune of $2.5 billion, with his net worth increasing more than $660 million since market close on Tuesday, per Forbes data.
GameStop CEO George Sherman’s 1.2 million shares are now worth $400 million. If stock continues to rise at this rate, he could be a billionaire in a matter of days.
Representatives for Cohen, GameStop, and Credit Acceptance Corp. did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
E-commerce entrepreneur Attal Alain joined GameStop’s board on January 10 just in the nick of time. His 125,000 shares, worth $4.9 million when reported to the SEC on January 19, are now worth $42.6 million.
Wedbush Securities Managing Director Michael Pachter has written off the rally as “a cult phenomenon.”
“They don’t currently have the earnings power to support a price this high,” Pachter told Insider. “The market appears to believe Ryan Cohen has a strategy that will take earnings up by a lot. I can’t give him credit for his genius until I see what the strategy is.”
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