Electronics/Appliance Stores · #49 in the Retail 100

GameStop

GME

Our rating: Not rated
Only one analyst publishes earnings estimates for GameStop, too few to form a consensus to build a rating on.
12-month target: —
Expected vs. S&P 500: —
Next earnings: Dec 8In 33 days

GameStop is becoming a trading card shop with a big pile of cash, and $4.4B of that cash is now in eBay stock.

Summary

GameStop is a video game store chain turning into a trading card and collectibles shop as players download more of their games. Collectibles now make up nearly half of sales, while game and console sales shrink fast. GameStop also holds billions in cash, securities and bitcoin, and it moved part of that into eBay stock around a takeover bid eBay rejected. The stock depends on collectibles growth and on what CEO Ryan Cohen does with the cash.

$24.31

+$2.20 (+9.95%)Past year

What GameStop does

GameStop is a video game store chain turning into a trading card and collectibles shop. It also holds about $5.4B of cash, securities and bitcoin, which management wants to use for acquisitions.²

What it sells

Collectibles45% of revenue, Q2 FY2026
Trading cards, action figures, toys and apparel, plus fees for sending cards to PSA for grading. Margins are higher than games.
New video games33% of revenue, Q2 FY2026
New consoles, accessories, games and digital gift cards. The lowest-margin category, and it swings with console launches like the Switch 2.
Used games and trade-ins22% of revenue, Q2 FY2026
Used consoles, games and electronics that customers trade in for store credit, then resold.

Who buys it

Gamers and collectors shopping in its stores and online. The U.S. is 77% of sales, Australia 15% and Europe 8%, after exits from Canada, France and several other countries. GameStop Pro, a paid loyalty program, rewards repeat visits.

Where you've seen it

Select GameStop stores take trading cards for professional grading through PSA, alongside the usual game trade-ins.

The backstory

GameStop's original business, selling new and used video games in stores, keeps shrinking as players download games. Sales fell by nearly a third from fiscal 2023 to fiscal 2025, partly from store closures and exits from Canada and much of Europe. Ryan Cohen, an investor who became CEO in September 2023, closed 727 U.S. stores in fiscal 2025 and pushed collectibles. GameStop also sold $3.47B of stock during 2024's rally.

How the business makes money

Why GameStop's cash pile matters as much as its stores^{1,2,10,11,14,15,16,17,18,27,34}

Step 1
Players download more of their games, so GameStop now sells trading cards and collectibles instead. They are 45% of sales.
Step 2
Collectibles earn more per sale than consoles. GameStop kept about 44¢ of each $1 of sales after the cost of goods last quarter.
Step 3
Closing stores cut overhead about 15%, so store profit more than doubled to $160.2M even as sales fell.
Step 4
GameStop also holds about $5.4B of cash, securities and bitcoin. That pile earns interest, and gains on eBay stock and bitcoin made about half of last quarter's profit.
What shareholders get
A $2B buyback plan sits unused, and GameStop issued 55.5M new shares in September. The stock is betting on what CEO Ryan Cohen does with the cash.

Advantages

A cash pile larger than most retailers'

Major advantage

GameStop's biggest advantage. On August 1 it held $5.4B of cash, securities and bitcoin plus the eBay stake. Its roughly $2.8B of convertible notes pay no interest.^1,2

Stores built for trading cards

Strong advantage

Hard for online sellers to copy. About 1,600 U.S. stores let customers trade in cards and submit them for grading in person.¹¹

Lower costs after store closures

Supporting

Helps profit, but not a lasting edge on its own. Closing stores cut costs enough to raise profit even as sales fell 19% last quarter.^1,2

What's changing

GameStop is turning from retailer to would-be acquirer

In May 2026 GameStop offered about $55.5B for eBay, and eBay's board rejected it on May 12 as neither credible nor attractive. GameStop has since built a 9.8% eBay stake. Bloomberg reported in August that Cohen may swap the bid for a partnership using GameStop's stores. What happens with eBay decides whether the cash pile stays intact.^2,4,5,6,7

Competitors

Who else an investor would consider, and how they compare.

Company	Market value	What it does	Compared with GameStop
GameStopthis stock	$12.26B	GameStop is a video game store chain turning into a trading card and collectibles shop. It also holds about $5.4B of cash, securities and bitcoin, which management wants to use for acquisitions.
eBayEBAY	$52.79B	Online marketplace where people sell to each other, big in trading cards.	eBay is a far larger online marketplace; it rejected GameStop's bid as not credible.^4,5
AmazonAMZN	$2.69T	Sells games, consoles and collectibles online with low prices and fast delivery.	Amazon wins on price and delivery; GameStop wins on in-store trade-ins.²⁹
FunkoFNKO	$375M	Makes pop-culture figures and toys, sold through many retailers.	Funko makes collectibles; GameStop sells them, and its collectibles sales grow far faster.²⁸
Best BuyBBY	$20.53B	Electronics chain selling consoles and games alongside TVs, computers and appliances.	Best Buy relies on hardware; GameStop has shifted toward collectibles.

Leadership

Who runs the company, and how the stock has done under the CEO.

GME +43.6%S&P 500 +75.5%Price change since Sep 2023

202420252026

Ryan CohenPresident, CEO and Chairman3 yrs

Daniel MoorePrincipal Financial Officer and Princip…2.5 yrs

When Cohen was named (Sep 2023), the stock moved -1.8% that day; the S&P 500 moved +0.6%.

Wall Street on Cohen: MixedYorkville started covering it at Buy, backing the shift to collectibles and a possible eBay deal. Gordon Haskett said an offer to buy eBay shares directly from investors had no chance after eBay rejected the bid.^L4,L3

Leadership sources (4) · researched Oct 2026

L1Billionaire Ryan Cohen takes over as CEO at GameStop, adding to chairman role · Yahoo Finance, 2023-09-28
L2GameStop's interim CFO gets permanent seat · CFO Dive, 2024-03-27
L3Analysis-Wall Street awaits GameStop CEO Cohen's next move after eBay rejected takeover bid · Reuters via Yahoo Finance, 2026-05-27
L4Yorkville Ives initiates GameStop stock coverage with outperform rating · Investing.com, 2026-10-07

Bull vs. bear: two bets on the same stock

1
A share is a small slice of the company. Its value comes from the profits the company will make in the future.
2
Nobody knows those profits yet. Buyers (bulls) pay today's price betting they'll beat what most people expect. Sellers (bears) bet they'll fall short.
3
When results come in, the price moves toward whichever side was right, and that side makes money.

The question they disagree on

Will collectibles growth push fiscal 2026 adjusted operating profit before depreciation above management's $650M forecast, nearly double last year's $345M, as video game sales keep falling?^{1,2,4,5,8,13,16,17,32,33,38}

Bull case: why buyers buy

Collectibles keep growing and the cash stays put or funds buybacks, so profit keeps rising and each share stays backed by a large cash pile.

Collectibles earn far better margins. Gross margin rose to 43.7% last quarter as sales shifted away from new consoles.
Management expects more profit this year. It raised its fiscal 2026 forecast for adjusted operating profit before depreciation to over $650M, nearly double fiscal 2025.
There is room to buy back stock. GameStop has yet to use a $2B buyback authorization.
Insiders are buying. Cohen bought 1.7 million shares in September and October, and three directors bought in September.

Bear case: why sellers sell

If trading-card demand cools or Cohen pursues eBay with new shares and borrowed money, shareholders lose the cash cushion and own a smaller slice.

Video games are shrinking fast. Video game sales fell 47% last quarter, partly against last year's Switch 2 launch.
The eBay bid showed an appetite for risk. Half the offer was GameStop stock, and it relied on up to $20B of debt.
The eBay stake ties GameStop to eBay's share price. Moving cash into eBay stock also cuts future interest income.
GameStop keeps issuing shares. It issued 55.5M shares in September to retire convertible notes.

What to watch

The numbers that will settle the debate.

Collectibles sales▲ improving

$356.3M last quarter, up 57%, or 45.1% of sales¹

Shows whether the growing business can outrun the shrinking game business.

Video game and pre-owned sales▼ worsening

$433.9M last quarter, down 42%¹

Still over half of sales, and the faster they fall, the harder collectibles must work.

Interest income▼ worsening

$77.1M last quarter, down from $83.7M the quarter before^1,2

Interest on the cash pile is a large share of pre-tax profit and shrinks as cash is spent.

Next earnings report

Dec 8

In 33 days

Expected earnings per share: $0.20
Expected revenue: —

What to listen for: Collectibles growth in the holiday quarter, and whether GameStop says what it will do with the eBay stake.^21,23,24

What would prove this wrong

✕Collectibles sales growth slows below the pace of the video game decline.
✕GameStop revives the eBay bid with new shares and large borrowing.
✕Fiscal 2026 adjusted operating profit before depreciation misses the $650M forecast.
✕eBay's share price falls sharply, cutting the stake's $4.9B value.

Not ratedNo recommendation yet

Only one analyst publishes earnings estimates for GameStop, too few to form a consensus to build a rating on.

The math behind the recommendation

Three 12-month price scenarios, weighted by probability, compared with the S&P 500 under the same method.

Now $24.19

Target $29.18

bull case30% likely

$43.13 +78%

Collectibles keep growing over 40% and profit clears $650M, while GameStop keeps its cash or buys back shares instead of chasing eBay.

$2.57 earnings per share × 16.8 = $43.13

base case45% likely

$28.74 +19%

Collectibles growth offsets the video game decline and GameStop meets its full-year forecast, while interest income eases as cash shrinks and the eBay stake stays a passive investment.

$1.88 earnings per share × 15.3 = $28.74

bear case25% likely

$13.22 -45%

Trading-card demand cools or GameStop revives the eBay bid with new shares and borrowing, so profit falls short and each share owns a smaller slice.

$1.17 earnings per share × 11.3 = $13.22

Why these odds: The only analyst publishing estimates raised next year's from $1.21 to $1.86 in 90 days, and GameStop has met or beaten estimates eight quarters running while raising its forecast. The eBay bid keeps a bear case alive.

How the prices are built: Wall Street expects earnings per share of $1.88 for the year starting a year from now (analysts range from $0.46 to $3.25). Today the stock trades at 13.3 times next year's earnings per share; its five-year middle is 22.3.^{1,2,10,11,21,22,24,25,26,27,31,35,36,37}

What tests the call: Fiscal Q3 2026 earnings and holiday collectibles demand (Dec 9)

Buy means expected to beat the S&P 500 by 10+ points over 12 months; Sell means expected to trail it by 10+. Inputs gathered Oct 5; the recommendation updates with the price every day. Model-generated, not personalized investment advice. How ratings work · Track record

What the price assumes

At $24.19, investors pay less for each dollar of GameStop's earnings than for the average stock's

GameStop trades at 13 times the earnings analysts expect over the next 12 months. That ratio is the multiple: what investors pay today for each dollar of a year's earnings. That is cheaper than it has been 80% of the time over the past five years, when the middle was 22.

Analysts expect earnings to grow about 3% the year after, against about 16% for the S&P 500. The S&P 500 trades at 19 times. At the market's multiple, today's price would only make sense if GameStop earned about 29% less than forecast over the next year.

GameStop multiple: 13×
S&P 500 multiple: 19×
Base case: +19%
Bear case: −45%

The skewOur bear case loses about $2.41 for every $1 our base case makes. That ratio, how much you stand to lose against how much you stand to make, is the skew.

Last earnings

FQ2 2026 results, reported Sep 8

Collectibles sales rose 57%, operating profit hit a second-quarter record of $160.2M, and GameStop raised its full-year profit forecast.^{1,3,8,9,21,22,24,25}

Reported Sep 8	Expected	Actual	Difference
Earnings per share	$0.06	$0.27	+350.0%
Revenue	—	—	—

Beat expectations in 6 of the last 6 quarters

Stock reaction: +5.3% next day ($18.89 to $19.89)

Why the stock moved

Up: adjusted earnings of $0.27 a share matched estimates, and operating profit more than doubled.
Up: the full-year forecast for adjusted operating profit before depreciation rose to over $650M from over $600M.
Up: two directors bought shares on September 8 and 9.
Limited: total sales fell 19% as video game sales nearly halved.

What it means for the stock: Strengthened the collectibles case. The open question shifted to what GameStop does with its eBay stake and remaining cash.