GameStop (GME) skyrocketed nearly 53% on Thursday, fueled by investors’ hopes that a board overhaul could transform the video game store into a digital first. Amazon (AMZN) competitor. The company announced Tuesday that former Amazon chief compliance officer Jenna Owens will take over as GameStop’s chief operating officer.
The company also said it would replace its chief financial officer and reduce its board of directors to nine out of 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 taken a hit in recent weeks, particularly on Wednesday, when GameStop fell 33% after its miserable earnings report. Although it did highlight some bright spots, including the soaring growth of digital technology, overall sales and earnings fell short of Wall Street expectations.
But the Reddit army on the WallStreetBets subreddit is powerful, and they were hopeful that GameStop had been oversold. The company’s shares had plummeted 54% in the past two weeks and they believe GameStop was getting cheap.
As GameStop stocks got a boost, so did other chronically shorted meme stocks that redditors have thrown on a wild ride this year. For example, AMC (AMC) shares were up 21% and Koss (KOSS) went up 57%. Macy’s (METER) increased about 8%.
AMC had been defeated earlier this week after Disney announced that it would delay “Black Widow” one more time and then release the Marvel superhero film simultaneously on Disney + and in theaters. Shares in the movie theater company had fallen 35% this week.
Shares in Meme soared as the broader market struggled to decide what to do. The S&P 500 (SPX) was 0.5% higher, and the Dow (INDU) it was up 199 points, or 0.6%. But technology was left behind, with the Nasdaq (COMP) rising just 0.1% a day after it plunged 2% on renewed fears about rising bond yields.