“Meme stock” heavy hitters GameStop, AMC drop in value, rise in popularity

Months after becoming the biggest names in the “meme stock” movement, fueled in part by Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets, shares for video game retailer GameStop and theater chain AMC continued to drop in value Tuesday. As of late Tuesday morning, AMC was on track for a fourth straight day of losses, dropping 8% to a new 7-month low at $21.31. Meanwhile, GameStop fell 4.3% to $131. That’s the company’s lowest stock price since March.

In just the first two weeks of December, AMC has plummeted 45% in value. GameStop is only doing slightly better, down 35% so far this month.

The AMC drop can be explained by two factors. Last week, AMC CEO Adam Aron sold $9.65 million worth of company stock. In addition, there are worries the Omicron variant of COVID-19 could create a dent in the recovery of theater attendance. 

GameStop is still reeling from disappointing third quarter financial numbers released last week. The value of the company dropped $1.39 per share in Q3. The company has also yet to release details on its highly anticipated and pricy new e-commerce strategy.

Despite the drop in value for GameStop and AMC, the meme stocks are rising in popularity among online searches. GameStop recently surpassed Tesla as the most-searched-for stock of the year, and #AMC500K trended on Twitter Tuesday morning. Many of the tweets in this hashtag indicate holders of AMC stock do not plan on selling despite the drop in value.