July 27 (Reuters) - S&P Dow Jones Indices said on Tuesday GameStop, one of the hottest and most visible ‘meme stocks’, will join the S&P MidCap 400 index next week.
GameStop’s shares have surged more than nine fold this year, helped by a social media hype and was the spark in January for a battle casting hedge fund short-sellers against a pack of small-time investors organizing online.
The company, currently a part of S&P SmallCap 600, will replace Weingarten Realty Investors in the S&P MidCap 400. Lakeland Financial Corp will take GameStop’s place in the S&P SmallCap 600.
GameStop, like others meme stocks that have lit up Wall Street since January, has sold millions of dollars in new stock.
The company is trying to pivot to e-commerce and recently hired a former Amazon official as its new chief executive officer to steer it through the transition.