NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hedge fund Renaissance Technologies added a new long position in GameStop and significantly increased its position in AMC Entertainment during the first quarter, putting it in a position to profit from the meme stock mania sweeping the U.S. stock market this week.
Renaissance added 1,004,958 shares of video game retailer GameStop during the quarter, which were worth about $12.6 million at the end of March, according to a May 13 securities filing.
Meme stocks rose this week after an account linked to Keith Gill, the central figure behind the previous meme stock craze in 2021, posted messages on social media platform
Quarterly disclosures of hedge fund managers' holdings of stocks in 13-F filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are one of the few public ways to track what hedge fund managers are buying and selling. Disclosures are made 45 days after the end of each quarter and may not reflect current positions.
GameStop shares are up more than 93% over the week and are up more than 300% over the past 10 trading days, which could make Renaissance Technologies' stake now worth about $33.5 million if it holds its position.
Renaissance also increased its position in movie theater chain AMC by 78% during the first quarter to give it a total of about 8.7 million shares, a securities filing showed.
Shares of other companies, including AMC, headphone maker Koss, and food storage container maker Tupperware, have followed GameStop higher. Like GameStop, many stocks were sold off dramatically.
James Simon, founder of quantitative hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, died last week at the age of 86.
(Reporting by Karolina Mandel and David Randall, in New York; Editing by Rod Nickel)
