OT GME earnings this afternoon. I went short $41 calls today
expiring tomorrow at $0.61, figuring that would be safe enough.
Stock is down $2 AH to $36.63.
Once again with their earnings we see them buying their way to
meet guidance. A year ago they forecast $3.40-$3.70. They had to
buy an additional 7.89M shares during the FY and after that
guidance to deliver $3.47.
I might sell at the money puts tomorrow morning if it's still
down 5% to collect the premium. Short interest is huge at 47.257M
shares (43.3%) and 30 days to cover. Guidance is nothing to be
excited about at $3.60-$3.80 but there's also this huge commitment
to keep buying shares in the high $30's, plus a near 4%
dividend:
During the fourth quarter of 2014, the company repurchased
1.63 million shares at an average price of $37.83 per
share, or $61.7 million of stock. For fiscal 2014, the
company repurchased 8.44 million shares at an average price
of $39.50 per share, or $333.4 million of
stock. In addition, the company paid out $149 million in
dividends during fiscal 2014.
For fiscal 2015, through March
19, GameStop has repurchased nearly 500,000 shares at an
average price of $38.26 per share, or $18.9
million worth of stock. Currently, there is $428.4
million remaining on the existing repurchase
authorization.
On March 3, 2015, the company announced a 9.0% increase
of its regular annual cash dividend from $1.32 to
$1.44 per share.