"The leader of retail investors" made a big purchase of pet concept stock Chewy, lawsuit storm turns the tide

Keith Gill is sued, and GameStop shareholder Martin Radev accuses him of trying to manipulate the company's stock price for his own benefit in a class action lawsuit. GameStop (GME) fell over 9% to a new daily low of $22.37.

On Monday, it was reported that "the leader of retail investors" Keith Gill is being sued, with the plaintiff alleging that he attempted to manipulate the stock price of GameStop (GME).

In a proposed class action lawsuit filed last Friday in the Brooklyn federal court in New York, GameStop shareholder Martin Radev accused Gill of trying to manipulate the company's stock price for his own benefit. The lawsuit states:

Before Gill started posting about GME in May, he had already purchased 120,000 call options on GME. The trading price of GME stock was around $17 before Gill started posting, but it surged to $48.75 on May 14.

On June 2, Gill revealed that he had 5 million shares of GME stock and 120,000 call options expiring on June 21. By June 13, Gill's holdings in GME had increased to over 9 million shares, but he had no outstanding call options.

Gill quietly sold and/or exercised all 120,000 call options on GME, making substantial profits and increasing his holdings in GME by over 4 million shares.

Affected by the related lawsuit news, GameStop (GME) fell over 9% during Monday's trading session, hitting a new daily low of $22.31. Gill did not immediately respond to the lawsuit news.

Interestingly, the case was voluntarily dismissed on Monday. By the closing bell, GME's decline had narrowed, but it still fell over 5%.

Gill's nickname on Reddit is DeepF-Value, and on YouTube and X, it is Roaring Kitty. He rose to fame in the well-known retail investor short squeeze case involving GME in 2021. After a long silence, he reappeared in May this year and resumed posting about GME on X platform (formerly Twitter).

On the same day, after it was disclosed that Gill held a 6.6% stake in online pet food and product retailer Chewy, Chewy's stock price briefly surged by 10%. However, Chewy gave back all its gains by the closing bell and fell by 6.6%

A document from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Gill purchased over 9 million shares of Chewy, equivalent to a 6.6% stake in the company. This position makes him the third largest shareholder of Chewy. Based on last Friday's closing price, the value of these shares exceeds $245 million.

Gill's holdings in Chewy had early signs. Last Thursday, Gill posted an image of a cartoon dog on social media X, which was quite similar to the Chewy logo. This caused Chewy's stock price to surge over 34% intraday, marking the largest intraday gain since June 2019 and hitting an intraday high since July last year. Similar to this Monday, Chewy's intraday rise last Thursday was also short-lived, with the closing price giving back all gains and slightly declining.

It is currently unclear whether Gill has sold his bet on GME to fund the purchase of Chewy shares. After the news of Gill's large purchase of Chewy spread, GME's stock price subsequently fell by over 5%, indicating market concerns.

It should be noted that there is a close connection between the "leader of retail investors" represented by GME and Chewy. GME's CEO Ryan Cohen is the founder and CEO of Chewy, who facilitated PetSmart's acquisition of Chewy in 2017 and its subsequent IPO in 2019.

In January 2021, Cohen, along with two other Chewy executives, joined GME's board of directors, which to some extent fueled the initial rise in GME's stock price. Cohen took over as CEO of GME in 2023, leading the transformation of this physical video game retailer.

In a recent YouTube live stream, Gill stated that GME is in the second phase of restructuring, which has become a bet on Cohen himself, who has been leading the transition to e-commerce