Keith Gill, also known as Roaring Kitty, hosts a YouTube livestream on June 7, 2024.
Source: Roaring Kitty | Youtube
The rally in Tough Stocks lost momentum Monday as traders reacted to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showing meme stock trader “Roaring Kitty” has taken a stake in the e-commerce pet food retailer .
The filing shows that Roaring Kitty, whose legal name is Keith Gill, bought just over 9 million shares – representing a 6.6% stake in the company. This makes him the third-largest Chewy shareholder, according to FactSet. Based on Friday’s close, that stake is worth more than $245 million.
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SEVEN rallies
The stock gained more than 9% on Monday but quickly fell into negative territory in morning trading. Shares ended the day down 6.6%.
The SEC filing also included a section that read, “Check the appropriate box to indicate whether you are a cat.” There was an “x” next to a response that read “I am not a cat.” This line was included in Gill’s statement in a series of 2021 congressional hearings on the GameStop trading frenzy.
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Chewy shares soared last week after Gill posted an image of a cartoon dog that resembled Chewy’s logo on the social media platform X. Shares rose as much as 34% on Thursday but ended the day slightly lower.
CNBC emailed Chewy’s PR team seeking comment on the new shareholder.
Gill is considered an advocate of GameStop and has boosted the video game company’s trading in recent months. In mid-June, he announced a stake in 9.001 million GameStop shares after exiting his massive call option position. It’s unclear whether he sold his GameStop bet to finance the purchase of Chewy.
GameStop shares fell more than 5% following the news.
There is a big connection between GameStop and Chewy. GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen was the founder and first CEO of Chewy, who was instrumental in PetSmart’s acquisition of Chewy in 2017 and its subsequent IPO in 2019.
Cohen joined the GameStop board in January 2021 along with two other Chewy executives, helping in part to drive the initial GameStop rally. He later took over as CEO of GameStop in 2023 and initiated the turnaround at the brick-and-mortar video game retailer.
In a recent YouTube livestream, Gill said GameStop was in the second phase of a reinvention and had become a bet on Cohen himself, who also led the move into e-commerce.
The investor was hit with a new class action lawsuit Friday accusing him of committing securities fraud in May and June by manipulating GameStop’s stock price through his online influence. The case was voluntarily dismissed on Monday.
Gill is a former marketer for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance. He came into the spotlight after successfully encouraging retail investors to buy GameStop shares and call options in 2021 to exclude short selling by hedge funds.
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2024-07-01 20:12:41
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