GME: Cohen Sits on $98M in Underwater Buys as Short Book Keeps Shrinking

GameStop closes out the week in an uncomfortable equilibrium: the CEO is down tens of millions on a month of open-market buying, short sellers are trimming but not leaving, and the stock keeps drifting lower without any obvious trigger.

Ryan Cohen's buying spree is the dominant fact on this ticker right now. Over 90 days, Cohen has spent more than $98 million acquiring shares via open-market purchases, none of them under a 10b5-1 plan, making them discretionary bets rather than mechanical sales. The largest single tranche was 777,000 shares at $27.00 on October 13, a $21 million outlay in one session. He added another 700,000 shares on October 2 at $24.41 and 446,500 more on September 29 at $23.48. Cohen now holds 9.1% of the class, as disclosed via Schedule 13D/A filed October 13, and GameStop carries an active 13D activist on its register. Every October purchase is underwater at the current price of $23.36, which closed Tuesday down 2.3% on the day and down nearly 12% on the week. The activist disclosure caveat applies: the 13D stake is as last disclosed, and positions below 5% can exit without a further filing, though Cohen's disclosed 9.1% leaves no ambiguity about his current presence. Two other insiders sold modest amounts over the same period, both under pre-arranged 10b5-1 plans, which carry less informational weight than Cohen's discretionary buying.

The short book is contracting, but methodically rather than in retreat. Short interest has dropped to 9.3% of free float, roughly 41.6 million shares as of October 27, down 12% on the week and extending a pullback from the October 15 peak of approximately 49.7 million shares. The ORTEX short score has eased from 63.3 on October 15 to 56.3 now, its lowest in two weeks, though it remains firmly above neutral. The borrow market offers no mechanical pressure to accelerate that covering: availability is at 378%, meaning nearly four shares remain available to borrow for every one currently lent out. Cost to borrow has crept up 6% on the week to 0.52%, but in absolute terms that is still a negligible carry cost. The 52-week low availability reading was 1.4%, a world away from the current looseness. Bears who want to stay short face no borrow squeeze. The FINRA fortnightly data, with a settlement date of October 15, put shares short at 48 million, consistent with the ORTEX estimate at that point in time.

Options traders are equally unmoved by the week's price action. The put/call ratio sits at 0.26, barely a whisker below its 20-day average of 0.262 and essentially flat on the z-score at negative 0.28. There is no sign of elevated downside hedging despite the 12% weekly decline, which could reflect either complacency or genuine conviction from the call-heavy options base that has characterised GameStop's retail ownership for years. The 52-week high on the PCR was 0.52, twice the current level, so there is room for defensive positioning to build without reaching extremes.

The analyst picture for GameStop is thin and dated. Wedbush's Michael Pachter is the only covering analyst on record, and his most recent note was a June 2025 reiteration of an Underperform rating with a $13.50 target, data now more than 16 months old. At $23.36, the stock trades 73% above that target, which is more a reflection of the stock's meme-driven premium than any fundamental disagreement with Pachter's underlying thesis. The bear case centres on hardware sales down 31.7% year-on-year and software down 26.7%, with ongoing store closures and digital distribution eroding the physical retail model. The bull case rests on the 34.5% gross margin, collectibles revenue up 54.6%, and the $1.5 billion raised via convertible notes giving the company financial runway. The valuation multiples in the dataset are anchored to 2022 figures and carry no current analytical weight.

Wikipedia attention for GameStop is running 1.66 standard deviations above its own 90-day average as of October 20, a retail-attention signal that tracks elevated public interest rather than fundamental momentum. None of the alt data datasets carry a measured lead on GameStop's reported financials, so this is colour rather than signal.

Among correlated peers, SIG was nearly flat on the week, down 0.4%, and ORLY lost 0.2%, both holding up far better than GameStop's 11.7% slide. The next scheduled earnings date is December 8, and with short interest still elevated, the borrow market loose, and Cohen's cost basis sitting above the current price, the key question heading into that release is whether the short book's gradual retreat continues or stalls as the print approaches.