Roaring Kitty reveals stake in Chewy big enough to make him 3rd largest investor in the pet retailer

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Chewy were volatile at the opening bell Monday after a regulatory filing revealed that Roaring Kitty, an investor at the center of the meme stock craze, has taken a 6.6% stake in the online pet retailer.

Roaring Kitty, whose legal name is Keith Gill, bought more than 9 million shares of Chewy last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows. Based on Friday’s $29.05 closing price, that amounts to a value of over $261 million — making him the company’s third-largest shareholder.

Shares jumped more than 20% before the opening bell. After rising 5% when markets opened, shares of Chewy Inc. slipped 3%.

Chewy, based in Florida, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

Gill tipped his hand last week on his feelings about the company, posting a picture of a dog on social media platform X and sending Chewy’s stock up more than 30% in intraday trading.

Gill made a name for himself back in 2021, when he rallied retail investors around GameStop. At the time, the video game retailer was struggling to survive — and big Wall Street hedge funds and major investors were betting against it, or shorting its stock. But Gill and those who agreed with him changed GameStop’s trajectory by buying up thousands of shares in the face of almost any accepted metrics that told investors that the company was in serious trouble.

That began what is known as a “short squeeze,” when those big investors that had bet against GameStop were forced to buy its rapidly rising stock to offset their massive losses.

GameStop saw yet another rally in May — when Gill returned online for the first time in three years.

Gill said he had faith in the ability of GameStop’s Chairman and CEO Ryan Cohen to modernize the company after what he did at Chewy. Cohen co-founded Chewy back in 2011. He stepped down from his role of Chewy’s CEO in 2018.