GameStop’s next quarterly results are due next week. But as is often the case with the retailer, the numbers it reports aren’t necessarily the main event. 

GameStop's (GME) stock was comparatively quiet on Friday. The shares closed higher on substantially lower volume than seen a day earlier, when they popped as a cryptic tweet by meme-stock maven Keith “Roaring Kitty” Gill evidently inspired some investors to buy in.

Traders sent the stock as much as 14% higher intraday on heavy volume Thursday, recalling some of the wild trading Gill's social-media activity inspired in the shares earlier this year. 

Perhaps investors turned once again toward Tuesday afternoon’s expected financial results. Some meme-stock watchers, meanwhile, appear to have turned their attention instead to AMC Entertainment (AMC), shares of which finished the day down about 9%.) 

GameStop, a video game and collectibles retailer that has faced an uphill battle amid an industrywide shift to digital commerce, isn’t widely covered by Wall Street. Wedbush’s Michael Pachter is the lone analyst tracked by Visible Alpha, and in a Friday note he reiterated an “underperform” rating and $10 price target that values the business, net of its cash, as worth little. 

“The company’s planned return to growth faces insurmountable barriers,” he wrote. 

Investors continue to generally see otherwise these days. The stock closed Friday near $29 and is up more than 60% this year, though off 2024 highs. Occasional business updates—since its second-quarter earnings release in September, GameStop has added a board member, announced a trading-card partnership, and raised cash—have helped sustain interest, with the shares rising over that time. 

This past week's flurry of action, however, is yet another reminder that much of the action around GameStop stock is driven by external factors.