Chewy, Petco Stocks Spike After Meme Stock Hero ‘Roaring Kitty’ Posts Dog Picture

Shares of pet-focused companies Petco (WOOF) and Chewy (CHWY) briefly spiked Thursday after Keith Gill, a key player in the 2020 and 2021 meme-stock craze known as "Roaring Kitty," posted an image of a dog on X. 

Chewy stock surged 34% after the 1 p.m. ET post to an intraday high of $39.10, while shares of Petco bounced 13% to $3.73, though the rally dissipated as quickly as it began, with Chewy closing roughly flat at $29.13 and Petco ending the day down less than 1% at $3.34. Both stocks were halted during the day due to volatility. 

Roaring Kitty's Return Fuels Market Volatility

Thursday's moves in Chewy and Petco shares come after Gill made his return to social media in May and began posting memes from TheRoaringKitty on X for the first time since 2021. His posts have fueled recent volatility in meme stocks, with a live stream announcement on June 6 sendingGameStop shares skyrocketing 47%.

Gill is largely credited with playing a leading role in the GameStop meme stock frenzy in 2020 through his popular YouTube account Roaring Kitty and Reddit persona "DeepF---ingValue." He bought $53,000 worth of GameStop stock in 2019, which was worth $48 million at the apex of GameStop fever. 

Gill’s posts since his return have largely featured images or videos without any accompanying text. In this case, the dog image was posted the day after Chewy announced a $500 million share repurchase Wednesday evening—although there was little movement prior to Gill’s post.

GameStop, for its part, saw a share price spike of more than 10% Thursday to $26.69 before closing nearly 4% higher at $25.09.