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Keith Gill, known on Reddit under the pseudonym...
Keith Gill (Photo illustration by Pavlo Gonchar / Getty Images)
Roaring kitty

Keith Gill bought millions of shares of Chewy stock before his tweet caused the stock to jump

Keith Gill purchased the stock in the days and weeks before his June 27 tweet.

Jack Raines

Last Thursday, my colleague Luke Kawa noted that the stock price of Chewy, an online pet food retailer, jumped 34% after Keith Gill, the GameStop uber-bull better known by his online moniker “Roaring Kitty,” tweeted a picture of an animated dog. It wasn’t immediately obvious why Chewy’s stock surged, but Luke highlighted that Ryan Cohen, GameStop’s current CEO, is also the cofounder and former CEO of Chewy, and on June 7, Gill explained in a livestream that his bullishness on GameStop was “a bet on the management, in particular, of course, Ryan fucking Cohen.”

It appears that Roaring Kitty’s admiration for Cohen has transcended GameStop, because on Monday morning, a Schedule 13G filing with the SEC showed that Keith Gill now owns about 9 million Chewy shares, representing a 6.6% stake in the company. The position was worth $245 million as of Friday’s closing price.

A couple of things to note on this:

First, Gill’s filing included a section in which he designated that he is “not a cat,” alluding to a comment he made in his 2021 testimony before Congress during the GameStop hearing.

Keith Gill 13G
Keith Gill's 13G filing for Chewy Stock

Second, and more importantly, the “Date of Event Which Requires Filing of This Statement” was June 24th, or last Monday. Investors have to file a Schedule 13G or 13D when they acquire a 5% stake in a company, meaning that at least three days before tweeting the picture of the dog, Gill had already accumulated millions of shares in the company.

As Luke noted last week, Chewy’s stock was up 89% from May 12, when Keith Gill returned to social media, before his tweet last Thursday, and there had been a strong increase in short-dated Chewy call option purchases in the week prior.

It’s also worth noting that from April 1 through June 26, the average trading volume on Chewy’s stock was ~10.5 million shares, but on May 29, volume jumped to 66.6 million, and on June 18, 24, 25, and 26, volume was above 20 million shares traded. In fact, eight of Chewy’s 10 highest volume days of the year were between May 29 and July 1, per Yahoo Finance. Between the stock’s performance and the volume uptick since May, it appears that a lot of money, including Gill’s, was flowing into Chewy in the weeks leading up to his tweet.

While Chewy’s price spiked 34% immediately after Gill’s tweet on June 27, the gains were short-lived, and Chewy is now trading below its June 24 price, when Gill accumulated a 5% stake in the company.

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SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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Rocket Lab deal lifts space stocks

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Planet Labs, AST SpaceMobile and Redwire all traded higher alongside Rocket Lab, extending gains in an industry that has drawn enhanced investor attention in recent months in light of the strategic importance that governments place on space and satellite communications infrastructure.

In a presentation, Rocket Lab’s management called the purchase “a shortcut” for its satellite communications business.

Under the terms of the agreement, Iridium shareholders will receive $27 in cash and Rocket Lab stock, valuing Iridium at $54 per share. Backed by a $3.6 billion bridge loan committed by Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo, Rocket Lab absorbs Iridium’s globally licensed spectrum and an active base of 2.5 million subscribers.

Rocket Lab has also remained one of the most active launch providers in the sector. The company completed its 12th launch of the year last week, maintaining one of the highest launch cadences among commercial space companies.

Today's rally helps offset a brutal stretch for the group. Rocket Lab shares had fallen over 35% over the prior month, while Planet Labs stock was down more than 40% and AST SpaceMobile stock was down around 30% over the same window.

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