Investors are watching quarterly filings on Wednesday to get a glimpse at how some of the world’s biggest money managers were positioned at the end of the second quarter, a period marked by a series of record highs in the S&P 500 that preceded a more recent bout of turmoil in U.S. stocks.
Filed at the end of each quarter, the 13-F filings are one of the few ways to get a snapshot of how often-secretive market participants such as hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds are positioned, though they are backward looking and don’t reveal current holdings.
The S&P 500 rose nearly 4 per cent from the beginning of April until the end of June, notching nine consecutive record highs in a rally fuelled by excitement over artificial intelligence and expectations that the Federal Reserve will be able to lower U.S. inflation without hurting growth.
Markets turned frothy at the start of the third quarter. Worries over rich valuations hit many of the market’s tech heavyweights, including chipmaker Nvidia Corp., the poster child of the AI rally. Concerns over the U.S. economy and a rate hike from the Bank of Japan roiled markets further, spurring a sharp early-August plunge in the S&P 500. The index has made up much of those losses in recent days.
Here is a snapshot of how some of the biggest funds were positioned at the end of June:
LIGHT STREET CAPITAL
Tech-focused equity hedge fund Light Street Capital added 77,459 shares in Apple while dumping all 110,000 of its shares in Alphabet and also 46,000 shares in Microsoft in the second quarter. It trimmed its stakes in Meta and Nvidia. It added Dell Technologies, buying $17.4 million worth or 126,279 shares.
MAVERICK CAPITAL
Lee Ainslie’s hedge fund more than tripled its shares in Microsoft to 600,000 shares in the second quarter. It increased its positions in Meta and Amazon, but slashed its stake in Alphabet. Maverick trimmed its Nvidia exposure.
RENAISSANCE TECHNOLOGIES (and others)
AI giant Nvidia, which has helped lead the broader stock market higher this year, continued to gain interest from prominent investors including hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, which added approximately 1.5 million shares over the quarter.
Large asset managers including BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard made significant purchases as well. Texas-based Twin Tree Asset Management was among the few funds that closed out of their Nvidia position by selling nearly 900,000 shares.
TIGER GLOBAL MANAGEMENT
Chase Coleman’s hedge fund added 1.9 million shares in Qualcomm, totalling US$370-million. Outside of tech, it added a new US$1.2-billion position in UnitedHealth Group Inc. – or 2.3 million shares. It made no changes to its positions in so-called Magnificent Seven tech and growth stocks, which included shares of Nvidia, Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
SCION ASSET MANAGEMENT
Fund manager Michael Burry, whose bets against the U.S. housing market before the 2008 financial crisis were chronicled in the movie The Big Short, reduced the number of companies in his portfolio to 10 in June from 16 in March. Still, he added some new stocks, including real estate company Hudson Pacific Properties and Molina Healthcare Inc., which provides health care services under the government-backed programs, and payments company Shift4 Payments Inc.
ROKOS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
The macro hedge fund run by Chris Rokos sold a US$164.9-million position in Apple Inc. – totalling 961,403 shares – that it held at the end of the first quarter, while also reducing its stake in Alphabet Inc. by almost 90 per cent. But Rokos increased its stakes in other so-called Magnificent Seven stocks: Meta Platforms Inc., Nvidia, Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.
SOROS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
The family office of Robert Soros completely dissolved its 63,640-share stake in Microsoft Corp., worth US$26.6-million at the end of March, and sold all 103,000 shares they owned in Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in the second quarter, while also reducing exposure to other big tech companies, such as Amazon , Uber Technologies Inc., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and Meta Platforms. Soros dissolved a sizable put position, which is typically seen as bearish, in the exchange-traded fund iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond.
SAUDI PUBLIC INVESTMENT FUND
The Saudi Public Investment Fund closed out its position in weight-loss biotech firm Allurion Technologies Inc., selling nearly 1.2 million shares. It tripled its position in the Brazilian digital banking company Nu Holdings Ltd., adding approximately 2.6 million shares, and added to existing call positions – which are typically seen as bullish – in large technology stocks including PayPal, Microsoft, and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.
The fund held roughly US$20.7-billion in U.S. stocks in the second quarter. In the first quarter, it had slashed its holdings nearly in half, to US$18-billion.
JANA PARTNERS
Activist investor Jana Partners built a new stake in U.S. enterprise-software company BlackLine Systems Inc. during the second quarter. Jana owned 1.15 million shares on June 30, equivalent to a near 2-per-cent stake.