Dalio's Bridgewater Joins Rennaissance in Boosting GameStop

(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Ray Dalio’s hedge fund Bridgewater Associates boosted its stake in GameStop by about 1.67 million shares to 3.10%, betting on the brick and mortar video-game retailer that’s struggling to revive growth.

Bridgewater’s boost was reported in a 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Renaissance, a quant firm founded in the 1980s by Jim Simons, reported a 1.6% position in GameStop earlier today. Two Sigma Investments LLC exited its 2.1% position in the retailer, and Sprott cut its stake by 50,000 shares.

GameStop has had a tumultuous two years, with Chief Executive Officer Michael Mauler stepping down after just three months on the job. GameStop’s stock been taking a hit for the past two years, down about 53 percent during that time period. In March, Wall Street analysts said the company’s dying strategy offered no long term value.

The company is the largest independent retailer of video games, and has ramped up its e-commerce business and added toys and collectibles. In 2016 it acquired hundreds of AT&T wireless stores in a move to diversify, and sold mobile game publisher Kongregate in the past year.

GameStop’s shares closed on May 15 up 1.89%.

To contact the reporter on this story: Polina Noskova in New York at pnoskova@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chakradhar Adusumilli at cadusumilli@bloomberg.net, Meghan Genovese

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