Gamestop (GME, $24.06) Q2 losses widen; cash burn suggests new plan at work
Gamestop reported losses for its second fiscal quarter, that were wider than the prior year quarter’s figure.
In the three months ended July 30, the gaming retail company incurred losses of -$108.7 million, or -36 cents per share, compared with a loss of -$61.6 million, or -21 cents, a year earlier.
Revenue fell to $1.14 billion, from $1.18 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Gamestop has been struggling to earn profits and has been apparently trying to adapt to an industry structure that’s largely moved online (thereby suggesting the company's pivoting away from its long-held brick-and-mortar model). Last month, it announced employee layoffs across departments.
"Our path to becoming a more diversified and tech-centric business is one that obviously carries risk and will take time," CEO Matt Furlong said. "This said, we believe GameStop is a much stronger business than it was 18 months ago." (as reported in CNBC).
GameStop’s new plans to revamp its business might be coming at a substantial cost. As of the end of the second quarter, it had $908.9 million in cash and cash equivalents— which is just slightly higher than half of the amount it had at the end of the year-ago quarter. Inventory, on the other hand, swelled to $734.8 million at quarter-end –vs. $596.4 million at prior year quarter's close. According to Gamestop, it intentionally stockpiled to meet customer demand and deal with supply chain challenges.
