GameStop (NYSE: GME) CEO Ryan Cohen has been aggressively purchasing shares of the video game retailer, signaling deep personal conviction in the company’s future direction.
According to a recent regulatory filing, Cohen purchased another 844,130 shares for approximately $22.8 million, paying between $26.75 and $27 per share.
That transaction marked his second stock purchase within the same month, following a $17.1 million acquisition previously disclosed in an October 2 SEC filing.
Cohen also bought 450,000 shares on September 29 at an average price of $23.48, and another 1,150,680 shares on September 21 at $22.94.
He had previously acquired 1 million shares on September 10 at approximately $20.38, rounding out a five-purchase streak that has drawn sustained attention from investors.
Altogether, those five purchases amount to roughly 4.1 million shares worth approximately $97 million, lifting his total ownership stake in GameStop to 9.1%.
What makes the buying pattern especially notable is that Cohen is purchasing into strength, not weakness, with GameStop shares already up 38.6% year to date and trading near 52-week highs.
Each successive purchase came at a higher price than the previous one, and averaging up into a rising stock carries a stronger conviction signal than buying into a dip, since no bargain-hunting rationale applies.
Cohen has been candid about his complicated relationship with the company, saying on The Pomp Podcast, “Investing in GameStop was a screw up,” while also stating that “when you’re in a position where there’s no exit hatch, that’s when greatness is achieved.”
When asked about his legacy during that same interview, Cohen answered plainly: “Turning around GameStop.”
His involvement with the company dates to late 2020, when he invested approximately $76 million for a 13% stake, later joined the board in January 2021 as Reddit-driven trading sent shares surging, and ultimately took on the CEO role he had not originally planned to hold.
The renewed buying followed a second-quarter earnings report that beat analyst expectations, with revenue coming in at $790.2 million against a consensus estimate of $756.85 million.
Collectibles sales surged 57% to $356.3 million during the quarter, while gross margin expanded significantly to 43.7% from 29.1% in the prior-year period.
Despite the recent momentum, GameStop’s five-year share performance remains deeply negative, with the stock still down 39.5% over that stretch, reflecting the structural headwinds facing its traditional retail business.
A separate question hanging over the company involves a reported potential deal with eBay, with Bloomberg having reported that Cohen was weighing abandoning an acquisition pursuit in favor of a partnership or joint venture with the e-commerce company.
Cohen has made no public comment on the eBay situation since that report, leaving investors to speculate about whether and how any partnership might take shape going forward.
Any revival of a deal involving cash and stock could dilute the very stake Cohen has been steadily building through his recent wave of open-market purchases.
Analysts and investors watching the situation closely will likely focus on whether collectibles growth continues in the next earnings report, whether forward guidance holds, and crucially, whether any insider selling appears in future regulatory filings.
For now, the clearest signal available remains the regulatory filings themselves, showing a billionaire CEO who publicly called GameStop a mistake spending nearly $40 million in a fortnight to make it a larger one.
