A bath of realism for GameStop, the company that has created quite a stir in New York since the beginning of the year due to the so-called Retail Mania that has led the stock to leap to levels never seen before.
As stock performance continues to capture the attention of investors around the world, GameStop has released its 2020 financial data, which show a contracting turnover and uncertain prospects for the near future. The core business of the company remains the sale in game store, a sector that with the explosion of e-commerce faces a crisis that seems to be definitive. GameStop is in fact trying to move its business online, but there is still a long way to go and the financial results prove it.
The company ended 2020 with revenue down 21% at $5,09 billion and one net loss of 215,3 million $3,31 per share, diluted over a net loss of $470,9 million ($5,38 per share) in the prior fiscal year. To leave some hope, however, it is precisely the explosion of the global sales through e-commerce, which grew by 191% and reached 30% of the company's total sales. The data for the fourth quarter are also good, closed with a profit of 80,5 million dollars against 67,8 million in the same period of 2019.
Despite the non-positive data, interest in Gamestop's future prospects remains sky-high. During the conference call that followed the publication of the accounts, many listeners “stayed at the door”. The requests for access to the call were so high as to force the organizers to reject the listeners. Executives still declined to answer any questions, though the company revealed it was considering sell additional shares to raise more money, given the attention received.
on Wall Street, the GameStop title closed yesterday's session down 6,55% to $181,75 and dropped another 12,3% in today's pre-market. Recall that on January 27, the shares had reached an all-time high of 347 dollars per share, up 1900% compared to 17,2 dollars on January 4th. Despite the subsequent declines, from the beginning of the year to today, the stock has still gained 935% of its value.
