Ahead of the Bell: GameStop shares up on $300 million buyback announcement

Ahead of the Bell: GameStop shares up on buyback

NEW YORK — Shares of GameStop Corp. rose in pre-market trading Thursday after the video game retailer announced it would buy back $300 million in stock.

The stock was up 90 cents, or 4.8 percent, at $19.49 in electronic trading ahead of the market opening. It’s still not far from its 52-week low of $17.12, hit in February.

Late Wednesday, the Grapevine, Texas, company announced its second buyback program of the year. A previous $300 million program was completed in July.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said he’s keeping his earnings estimates for the current and next fiscal year, but views the buyback as a “positive.” He believes GameStop is likely to start repurchases in January, when it’s flush with cash from the holiday season.

GameStop also said it will spend $200 million buying back its senior notes to reduce its debt.

GameStop runs the world’s largest video game chain, with more than 6,500 stores in 17 countries.