Benzinga | Oct 14, 2020 03:12AM EDT

GameStop Shares Get Another Boost From Hedge Fund Stake After Microsoft Partnership

GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) stock surged 5.89% in Tuesday's after-market trading session. GME stock has risen 28% since last Wednesday, and its year-to-date gains are close to 88%.

What Happened On Tuesday, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company disclosed that Richard Mashaal's hedge fund firm, Senvest Management LLC, purchased over 3.6 million common stock representing a 5.54% stake in GameStop last week.

This followed the consumer electronics and gaming retailer entering into a multi-year partnership with tech giant Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) last Thursday.

Through the deal with Microsoft, GameStop hopes to improve customer experience by leveraging Microsoft's expertise in cloud computing. Additionally, the esports merchandise retailer has also announced payment plans for the upcoming models of Xbox consoles, including an Xbox All Access program.

Why Does It Matter In September, there were reports that Entrepreneur and GameStop investor Ryan Cohen held strategic discussions with the company's management. Cohen was keen to expand the e-commerce segments beyond consumer electronics and video games, and position the company to take on e-commerce giant Amazon Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN).

Cohen is GameStop's largest individual investor with 10% holdings and BlackRock Institutional Trust Company (NYSE:BLK) is the biggest institutional investor with a 15.31% stake.

Price Action At the end of Tuesday's after-hours, GME stock was quoting at $12.58 per share.