What happened
Shares of mobile gaming stock Skillz (SKLZ +1.16%) continue to get hammered for no reason, with shares tumbling another 5.7% lower at 11:26 a.m. ET on Thursday. The stock has lost 86% of its value over the past year and is down more than 90% from the highs hit during the meme stock trading frenzy a year ago.
So what
Many of the original meme stocks were heavily shorted stocks around which small retail investors rallied in an effort to shore up the price and spark a rally that would lead to a squeeze on short-sellers.
Image source: Getty Images.
Skillz was one of the beneficiaries of the mania and its shares got bid up to almost $40 a share from around $20 a share the month prior. But then began the long slog lower that has afflicted most of the other companies that had seen their shares bid higher by internet chatter and social media mentions.
Now what
Skillz remains a heavily shorted stock with about 24% of its shares outstanding sold short. Much of the problem with Skillz, however, has been a lack of high-profile games on the platform like Call of Duty. CEO Andrew Paradise has admitted to spending too much money on low-return user engagement marketing and has pivoted to luring developers to the platform.
To date Skillz doesn't have much to show for its efforts, and though it held and arguably still holds a lot of promise, the market is still waiting for proof it can be a successful gaming platform. With a first-quarter earnings announcement scheduled for May 4, that may be the first opportunity investors have to see whether the mobile gamer will continue its downward trajectory or finally make a run higher.
The market, however, seems to be betting the results will be underwhelming.
