Chewy jumps 15% as filing shows 'Roaring Kitty' takes stake

(Reuters) -Shares of Chewy rose 15% premarket on Monday after a filing showed Keith Gill, the stock influencer known as "Roaring Kitty", had picked up a 6.6% stake in the pet products e-retailer.

The filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission comes 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 that briefly sent Chewy shares to a near one-year high on Thursday.

The 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 U.S. SEC, Chewy and Gill did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Gill usually discloses his trading positions on platforms such as YouTube and Reddit, where he is known as "DeepFuckingValue", to the many retail traders who follow his cues.

The filing showed Gill owns 9 million shares of Chewy, equating to a stake worth about $245 million at the stock's Friday closing price of $27.24. The stake would make Gill Chewy's third-largest shareholder, according to LSEG data.

Chewy rival Petco Health and Wellness Company's shares fell 4%, reversing earlier gains.

Shares of Chewy, which sells pet food as well as medicine online, have risen 15% so far in 2024 but declined in the three preceding years as spending on pets slowed after a post-pandemic boom.

Its sales have been stable in the past few quarters despite weaker consumer spending on discretionary items. "Pet humanization" is a key part of Chewy's strategy, where owners splurge on pets as they are considered part of the family.

Some analysts said last week Gill's interest in Chewy could also be influenced by the fact that the pet retailer was founded by GameStop 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 videogame retailer have swung wildly since Gill reappeared. They dropped 5.7% in volatile premarket trading on Monday, but have gained 40% for the year so far.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra and Pratik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar, Devika Syamnath and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)