GameStop Earnings Are Today. Don’t Expect to Learn Much About Its New Strategy.

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GameStop

is set to report fiscal fourth-quarter earnings after the market closes on Thursday.

The company’s stock is down roughly 60% from a year ago as investors await signs of a broader turnaround for the videogame retailer.

GameStop

(ticker: GME) is expected to report its first profitable quarter since last year’s fiscal fourth quarter—at least according to the three remaining analysts still providing estimates to FactSet. The consensus among them calls for earnings of 85 cents a share and sales of $2.16 billion.

GameStop stock rose 5% to $86.86 on Wednesday. Shares are down about 41% year to date, as the meme trade unwound amid broader market volatility and rising interest rates.

The company hasn’t taken questions from analysts in each of the past four earnings calls, nor has it provided guidance. In a letter to

Bed Bath & Beyond
’s
(BBBY) board, Chairman Ryan Cohen said he prefers a management approach that focuses on executing rather than appeasing Wall Street and television personalities.

Cohen joined the company’s board as an activist investor in January 2021, which helped spark GameStop stock’s parabolic surge that crushed hedge funds betting against it. Cohen became chairman in June. The company has added executives with e-commerce expertise, most notably naming

Amazon

alum Matt Furlong to the CEO role.

Since then, GameStop has invested in expanding its fulfillment and customer care operations, as well as its offerings to include more computer and TV accessories. It’s also announced plans for a dive into the non-fungible token space. But analysts like Michael Pachter of Wedbush have said the company hasn’t provided a plan for substantially turning things around.

Pachter told Barron’s he expects the company’s CEO to once again read prepared remarks and not take any questions.

“No guidance, no meaningful revelation about the strategy,” he added. “They will throw around ‘blockchain’ and ‘NFT’ a lot, maybe a few ‘metaverse’ references thrown in.”

It’s not just Pachter questioning the firm’s strategy. At the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, former GameStop director Reggie Fils-Aime told Bloomberg’s Emily Chang that he was rebuffed when he sought to share his expertise as a former Nintendo of America president with Cohen and his associates.

“There has not been an articulated strategy,” Fils-Aime said. “You can go on the GameStop website, try and find a strategy. There is no articulated strategy. Leadership says, ‘Well, we don’t want to articulate our strategy because they don’t want anyone to steal our strategy.’”

The line drew laughter from the SXSW crowd.

“I come from the business perspective that you need to articulate your strategy to all of your key constituents,” he said. “You need to communicate to your business partners; your vendors; your employees; your shareholders. And the three public boards I participate on all communicate their strategy.”

A GameStop representative didn’t immediately return a request seeking comment on Fils-Aime’s comments.

GameStop shares tend to be volatile in the aftermath of quarterly results. As Cohen said during his June shareholder address, investors may want to buckle up.

Write to Connor Smith at [email protected]