GameStop Shares Rise 4 Percent to $25.60 as Ryan Cohen's $17 Million Buy Still Sets the Tape

GameStop shares rose 4 percent on Thursday, extending a monthlong rally that has tracked open-market purchases by Chief Executive Ryan Cohen and four directors, not a new sales figure.

The stock traded at $25.60, up $1.02, or 4.15 percent. It closed Friday at $24.70 and was at $25.16 early this week. Over the past month it has gained about 30 to 35 percent and posted a fifth straight weekly gain. The 52-week range is about $17.79 to $26.99. Thursday's print sits just under the high. Take-Two Interactive fell about 6 percent over the same month. Roblox rose about 7 percent. A video-game ETF gained about 2 percent. The move is GameStop's, not the sector's.

Cohen bought 700,000 Class A shares on Oct. 2 at an average of $24.41, about $17.1 million, according to a Form 4 filing. Filings put his purchases over the past week near $28 million. Directors Nat Turner, Alain Attal, James Grube and Lawrence Cheng also bought on the open market. Every insider transaction recorded in the stretch was a purchase. None was a sale. The earliest buys were below $19. Cohen's October trade was above $24. Insiders paid up as the stock rose.

The operating quarter underneath the buying was mixed. Second-quarter revenue, reported Sept. 8, fell 18.7 percent to $790.2 million as hardware and software sales declined. Profitability improved. The company did not issue a new forecast with Thursday's move. Cohen has not commented on the purchases beyond the filings. A Form 4 is a disclosure, not a thesis. The market has treated the cluster of buys as one.

GameStop's shareholder base still prices the stock as a meme name with a cash pile and a chairman who buys in public. A 4 percent day at $25.60, a dollar under the 52-week high, is that trade continuing. The revenue line is down almost a fifth. The insiders are buying anyway, at higher prices than they paid in September. Until the next quarter, the filing is the news.