GameStop Plans 4-For-1 Split
The meme stock saga continues.
The meme stock saga continues.
GameStop’s stock split is finally happening.
The company announced plans to split its stock four-for-one later this month, sending shares higher after the market closed on Wednesday. Shareholders of record at the close of business on July 18 will receive three additional shares for every share owned via a stock dividend. The additional shares will be distributed on July 21, and GameStop (ticker: GME) stock will begin trading on a split-adjusted basis on July 22.
GameStop stockholders in June voted in favour of expanding the company’s share authorisation to one billion from 300 million in order to facilitate a split. The company said in March that the higher authorisation would allow it to implement a split and “provide flexibility for future corporate needs.”
Shares of GameStop rose 5% to US$123.25 in after-hours trading even though stock splits don’t make a company more valuable, given that they are akin to cutting a pie into smaller slices. If GameStop split at its recent after-hours levels, it would trade at $30.81.
That is around the US$30 pre-split price target Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter assigns the stock, which he rates at Underperform. “Makes it more affordable for unsuspecting rubes who haven’t yet lost all of their money,” Pachter told Barron’s via email when asked about the split.
The stock has traded as high as $255.69 in the past 12 months, but it is still up significantly from its 2020 levels. Even the potential post-split number is well above where GameStop shares were trading before Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen announced a stake and launched a campaign that kicked off the company’s meme-fueled run in January 2021. GameStop stock has fallen 20% in 2022, compared with a 19% drop for the S&P 500 index.
Cohen became the chairman of GameStop’s board a year ago. The company has added executives and employees with technology, e-commerce, and blockchain backgrounds to help turn things around as the business battles the shift to sales of videogames online rather than in stores.
Following the board and management shake-up, the company invested in fulfilment and customer-care efforts, as well as expanding its offerings to include more computer supplies and TVs. It is also launching a marketplace for nonfungible tokens. Experts, like Pachter, are sceptical such blockchain efforts will benefit the stock.
Reprinted by permission of Barron’s. Copyright 2021 Dow Jones & Company. Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Original date of publication: July 7, 2022.
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Continued stagflation and cost of living pressures are causing couples to think twice about starting a family, new data has revealed, with long term impacts expected
Australia is in the midst of a ‘baby recession’ with preliminary estimates showing the number of births in 2023 fell by more than four percent to the lowest level since 2006, according to KPMG. The consultancy firm says this reflects the impact of cost-of-living pressures on the feasibility of younger Australians starting a family.
KPMG estimates that 289,100 babies were born in 2023. This compares to 300,684 babies in 2022 and 309,996 in 2021, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). KPMG urban economist Terry Rawnsley said weak economic growth often leads to a reduced number of births. In 2023, ABS data shows gross domestic product (GDP) fell to 1.5 percent. Despite the population growing by 2.5 percent in 2023, GDP on a per capita basis went into negative territory, down one percent over the 12 months.
“Birth rates provide insight into long-term population growth as well as the current confidence of Australian families,” said Mr Rawnsley. “We haven’t seen such a sharp drop in births in Australia since the period of economic stagflation in the 1970s, which coincided with the initial widespread adoption of the contraceptive pill.”
Mr Rawnsley said many Australian couples delayed starting a family while the pandemic played out in 2020. The number of births fell from 305,832 in 2019 to 294,369 in 2020. Then in 2021, strong employment and vast amounts of stimulus money, along with high household savings due to lockdowns, gave couples better financial means to have a baby. This led to a rebound in births.
However, the re-opening of the global economy in 2022 led to soaring inflation. By the start of 2023, the Australian consumer price index (CPI) had risen to its highest level since 1990 at 7.8 percent per annum. By that stage, the Reserve Bank had already commenced an aggressive rate-hiking strategy to fight inflation and had raised the cash rate every month between May and December 2022.
Five more rate hikes during 2023 put further pressure on couples with mortgages and put the brakes on family formation. “This combination of the pandemic and rapid economic changes explains the spike and subsequent sharp decline in birth rates we have observed over the past four years,” Mr Rawnsley said.
The impact of high costs of living on couples’ decision to have a baby is highlighted in births data for the capital cities. KPMG estimates there were 60,860 births in Sydney in 2023, down 8.6 percent from 2019. There were 56,270 births in Melbourne, down 7.3 percent. In Perth, there were 25,020 births, down 6 percent, while in Brisbane there were 30,250 births, down 4.3 percent. Canberra was the only capital city where there was no fall in the number of births in 2023 compared to 2019.
“CPI growth in Canberra has been slightly subdued compared to that in other major cities, and the economic outlook has remained strong,” Mr Rawnsley said. “This means families have not been hurting as much as those in other capital cities, and in turn, we’ve seen a stabilisation of births in the ACT.”
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