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GameStop is struggling with declining physical sales of videogames.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
GameStop
stock was rising sharply Thursday after Ryan Cohen was elected as president and chief executive. It’s a further bet that the activist investor can turn around the videogame retailer’s flagging fortunes.
GameStop
(ticker: GME) shares were up 9.8% to $18.83 in premarket trading. The company said its board had elected Cohen as CEO and president with immediate effect. He won’t receive any compensation for the role.
Cohen became executive chairman of GameStop in June, following the removal of former CEO Matt Furlong who had been pursuing a cost-cutting strategy.
Since then, the company reported a narrowed quarterly loss that boosted the shares. They remain, however, well off the heights reached during the meme-stock frenzy of 2021.
Few analysts are still covering the stock. Wedbush’s Michael Pachter has a $6 target price on GameStop and Underperform rating, arguing back in June that GameStop will struggle to cut costs quickly enough to stem its losses.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com