GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) shares are extending recent strength Monday afternoon after famed investor Michael Burry disclosed he has been buying shares of the video game retailer, adding fresh fuel to a rally already driven by CEO Ryan Cohen’s insider purchases.
In a new Substack post shared on X, Burry wrote, “I own GME. I have been buying recently.” The famed investor, known for shorting the U.S. housing market before 2008, believes he is buying near one-times tangible book value, highlighting Cohen’s role in deploying the company’s capital over the long term. His comments quickly circulated across social media platforms, sparking a sharp jump in shares of GameStop on Monday.
Final Stop GameStop: The Jig is Up
In Part 1, I outlined how he arrived on the scene – we had a talk in 2019 about GameStop and investing. The Chewy founder then made a big splash as an activist with a Form 13D filing later in 2020.
He has held on with the diamondest hands.… pic.twitter.com/3atYMvmUfX
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Shares jumped intraday to around $25, up roughly 8% on the session. Monday’s move builds on gains sparked by disclosures that Cohen bought one million GameStop shares in the open market last week at prices just above $21, lifting his stake to about 42.1 million shares, or 9.3% of shares outstanding.
The company also recently approved a new compensation plan that could grant Cohen options on roughly 171.5 million additional shares if GameStop achieves ambitious long-term performance targets, including a potential $100 billion market capitalization and $10 billion in cumulative EBITDA.
Burry’s renewed interest matters because he was one of the earliest high-profile investors to champion GameStop’s turnaround. Through his firm Scion Asset Management, he disclosed a sizable GME stake in 2019 and pushed the company to buy back stock, cut debt and streamline operations, arguments that helped legitimize the contrarian bull case well before the 2021 meme-stock explosion.
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Although Burry exited prior to the 2021 short squeeze, his original thesis that the balance sheet and loyal customer base were undervalued became a reference point for many retail traders. Seeing him return now, at what he frames as close to book value and with Cohen firmly in charge, reinforces the idea that a seasoned value investor still sees asymmetric upside.
