Shares of online pet food retailer Chewy surged more than 10% in pre-market trading on Monday after internet meme stock star “Roaring Kitty” revealed that he took a sizable stake in the company — before turning negative after the opening bell.
Keith Gill, the popular social media influencer who commands an online following of more than 1.6 million users on X, filed disclosure forms with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday showing that he had amassed 9,001,000 Chewy shares, a 6.6% stake, worth around $245 million.
The filing comes just days after the investor, known for triggering the meme-stock rally of 2021, posted an uncaptioned picture of a puppy on social media platform X.
Chewy’s shares had leapt to a near one-year high after Gill post last Thursday, before giving up those gains.
However, the company’s stock plunged more than 4% after Monday’s opening bell.
Gill, a former financial analyst with MassMutual, was named in a class action lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court last week accusing him of securities fraud in which he allegedly engineered a “pump-and-dump” scheme designed to artificially inflate the stock value of video game retailer GameStop.
The SEC filing, which lists Keith Gill as the reporting person, included a section “Check the appropriate box to designate whether you are a cat” under which the descriptor “I am not a cat” was checked.
The SEC and Gill were not immediately available for comment.
Gill is known to disclose his trading positions on platforms such as YouTube and Reddit, where he is known as “DeepF–kingValue,” to the many retail traders who follow his cues.
Shares of Chewy, which sells pet food as well as medicine online, have risen 15% so far in 2024 but fell in the three preceding years as spending on pets slowed after a post-pandemic boom.
Analysts said last week Gill’s interest in Chewy could also be influenced by the fact that the pet retailer was founded by GameStop’s CEO Ryan Cohen.
GameStop had gained nearly 700% in the 2021 meme-stock rally, fueled by Gill’s posts.
Gill returned to Reddit on June 2 after a years-long hiatus, with a screenshot disclosing a sizeable GameStop stock and options position.
Shares of the video game retailer have swung wildly since Gill reappeared.
They have gained 40% for the year so far.
