Benzinga - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn started shorting GameStop Corp . (NYSE: NYSE:GME) during the height of the "meme-stock" frenzy around January 2021 and continues to hold a large position, reported Bloomberg, citing sources.
Short Position: Icahn commenced building the short position when GameStop was trading close to its peak of $483 per share and continues to hold a large bet against the retailer’s shares, the report quoted its sources as saying.
Icahn, who has added to his position from time to time, holds the view that GameStop’s stock isn’t trading on its fundamentals and will continue to decline, the report said, adding that the size of his position was not clear.
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GameStop became the highlight of the meme-stock frenzy during the pandemic days when retail traders, trading on zero-fee apps, colluded to bet against big money managers betting against the company. The saga led to many big funds burning their fingers.
According to Bloomberg, the current short position against GameStop is a rare instance of Icahn betting against meme stocks.
Emails sent to Icahn’s admin and GameStop media representatives remained unanswered at the time of writing.
Price Action: GameStop’s shares closed 8.84% lower on Monday and have declined over 34% since the beginning of the year. However, compared to Nov. 2020 when the meme-stock frenzy commenced, the stock is still up over 700%. This means those retail investors who bought and held the stock during the frenzy are sitting on massive gains.
Short Interest: Close to 20% of the float of GameStop shares has been currently shorted, according to the latest data available on Benzinga Pro.
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