What happened
Shares of GameStop (GME +4.00%) were down 1.5% at 10:52 a.m. Wednesday ahead of the video game retailer's third-quarter earnings report, which is expected after the stock market closes today.
This follows a mini rally yesterday that saw GameStop's stock rise 6% on no company-specific news, though shares had been up by as much as 9% earlier in the day.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
GameStop is undergoing a transition to better confront the digital and online future of the gaming industry, but exactly how it will achieve that has been a bit of a mystery for investors. Since activist investor Ryan Cohen took over as chairman of the company, numerous executive positions have been filled with alums from Amazon (AMZN +0.53%) and elsewhere, further indication GameStop's own future is mostly online.
That's not completely surprising since Cohen said as much when he was railing against the old management team's leadership, but there has been little light shed on just how he will achieve this.
Fortunately, the meme stock trading frenzy earlier this year allowed GameStop to raise substantial amounts of money, which it used to pay off all its long-term debt, putting the video game stock in a better financial position than it's been in in years.
Now what
Cohen can only play his cards close to the vest for so long, after which the market is going to begin demanding he put up or shut up. There is the hope more may be revealed during today's earnings announcement, though GameStop hasn't had a typical conference call with Wall Street analysts in a year, as it has limited the announcements to just the prepared remarks.
Meanwhile, Wall Street is looking for GameStop to post a loss of $0.67 per share on revenue of $1.12 billion, compared to a $1.02 per share loss on sales of $1.44 billion last year.
