GameStop (GME) nearly 53% skyrocketed on Thursday, raised by investors’ hope that a board overhaul could turn the video game store into a digital first Amazon (AMZN) competitor. The company announced Tuesday that former Amazon compliance chief Jenna Owens will take over as GameStop chief operating officer.
The company also said it would replace its chief financial officer and reduce its board to nine directors from the current 13. Eight of GameStop’s current directors will not seek re-election at the company’s annual meeting later this year.
The company’s shares have experienced a sharp rebound in recent weeks, especially on Wednesday, when GameStop fell 33% after its miserable earnings report. While it highlighted some bright spots, including the boom in digital growth, overall sales and profits fell short of Wall Street expectations.
But Reddit’s army at WallStreetBets of subredditing is powerful and they expected GameStop to have sold out. Shares of the company had fallen 54 percent in the past two weeks, and they believe GameStop was getting cheap.
As GameStop shares rose, so did other meme stocks with a chronic short film that the redditors have sent on a wild journey this year. For example, AMC (AMC) shares increased 21% i Koss (KOSS) increased by 57%. Macy’s (M) increased by about 8%.
AMC had been beaten earlier this week after Disney announced it would delay “Black Widow” again and then release the Marvel superhero movie simultaneously at Disney + and theaters. Shares of the film company had dropped 35% this week.
Meme stocks skyrocketed as the wider market struggled to figure out what to do. He S&P 500 (SPX) was 0.5% higher, and the Dow (NOT SOLD) rose 199 points, 0.6%. But technology lagged behind, with the Nasdaq (COMP) rising just 0.1% a day after falling 2% due to renewed fears about rising bond yields.