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- Alaska's revenue department made a 10-fold gain on GameStop in the first half of this year.
- The state agency increased both its GameStop and Tesla bets last quarter.
- Alaska ramped up its Tesla stake from under $1 million to $89 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.
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Alaska has been an unlikely winner from the GameStop short squeeze in January, racking up a 10-fold gain on the meme stock in the first half of this year.
The state's revenue department owned 43,000 GameStop shares worth $802,000 at the end of December. It trimmed its stake in the video-game retailer to 38,400 shares over the next six months, but GameStop's stock price skyrocketed from under $20 to $214 in that period. As a result, Alaska's GameStop position surged in value by more than 900% to $8.2 million.
Moreover, the agency potentially raked in another million dollars or so when it cashed out around 6,000 shares in the first quarter, depending on when it sold.
Alaska may be warming up to GameStop again. After trimming its stake to about 37,000 shares in the first quarter of this year, it increased it by around 1,400 shares or 4% last quarter, a regulatory filing revealed this week.
The state's revenue department also added to its Tesla holdings last quarter. It increased its stake by less than 1% to 128,000 shares, and Tesla's stock price inched up 2% in the period, meaning the position rose in value to $87 million.
The agency ramped up its Tesla stake from 2,000 shares worth less than $1 million at the end of September 2020, to 127,000 shares worth $89 million at the end of December, likely because the stock was added to the S&P 500 index. Elon Musk's electric-vehicle company has ranked among its largest holdings since then.
Overall, Alaska's stock portfolio rose in value by 7% to $9.9 billion last quarter. The state doesn't tax personal incomes or sales, so it relies on oil taxes and royalties, federal funding, and investments to fund its budget.