Are Hedge Funds Betting on GoPro’s Acquisition?

Among the funds holding a long position in GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) at the end of the second quarter, Edward Gilhuly’s Sageview Capital topped the list, with around 2.30 million shares, up by over 400% on the quarter. On Sageview Capital’s tail is Donald Chiboucis’ Columbus Circle Investors which held 1.0 million shares and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, with a stake containing 936,600 shares. Among the funds that initiated new positions in the stock, Christopher A. Winham’s Tide Point Capital leads the way, disclosing 350,000 shares in its latest 13F. On the other hand, Valinor Management and Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management opted to unload their entire holdings in the company

GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) is currently working on its new Hero 5 camera, which is expected to be 50% smaller than its predecessor. GoPro’s latest Hero 4 Session is facing a headwind from its Hero 4 Black and Silver as the company’s CFO stated that GoPro will be spending more to promote Hero 4 Session. GoPro has also introduced a new $15,000 virtual reality filming device, Odyssey. Odyssey has 16 Hero 4 devices mounted on a circular rig, which records the video at the same time and the recordings from cameras are automatically stitched into a single video using Google Jump application. GoPro is already taking orders for this device from filmmakers and professionals. All these upcoming new devices might act as a big catalyst for GoPro in the later part of 2015 and early 2016.

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