Top Funds' Activity in Q4 2024
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. continued whittling a longtime bet on Bank of America Corp. in last year’s final months, while keeping a stake in Apple Inc. intact following an earlier reduction.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate cut its stake in the bank to 8.9% in the fourth quarter after selling 117.5 million shares, a regulatory filing on Friday shows. Bank of America executives and shareholders have waited months for the update after Berkshire’s prior sales left it with less than 10% and freed it from a requirement to quickly disclose transactions.
The remaining holding was worth $31.9 billion as of Friday’s close in trading. Buffett, 94, started whittling the investment in mid-July, without providing any explanation.
After slashing a holding in Apple earlier in 2024, Berkshire left the stake untouched in the year’s final months. The iPhone maker remains Berkshire’s largest stock holding, representing 28% of the conglomerate’s portfolio. The stake’s value rose by more than $5 billion in the quarter.
The firm also bought shares in SiriusXM and Occidental Petroleum during the quarter, while slashing a stake in Citigroup Inc. 73%, selling 40.6 million shares. And Buffett exited Ulta Beauty, a stock it started acquiring in the second quarter before paring back the position in the following period.
Berkshire is expected to release annual earnings, as well as Buffett’s traditional letter to shareholders, later this month.
Svea Herbst-Bayliss of Reuters also reports Ackman's firm boosts stake in Nike, cuts Chipotle during Q4:
Billionaire investor William Ackman increased his stake in sportswear company Nike by 15% and cut his investment in fast-casual food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill by 14%, during the fourth quarter, according to a regulatory filing made on Friday.
Ackman's firm Pershing Square Capital Management owned 18.8 million shares in Nike and 24.7 million shares in Chipotle, a name his firm has owned since 2016.
Once one of Wall Street's most voluble corporate agitators who pushed for changes at companies ranging from railroad Canadian Pacific Kansas City to industrial gases maker Air Products and Chemicals, Ackman adopted a quieter investment style a few years back but his picks are still closely followed.
The firm has been steadily cutting its investment in Chipotle, one of its big winners in recent years. On June 30, Pershing Square owned 28.8 million Chipotle shares.
The filing, known as a 13F filing, shows what fund managers owned at the end of the previous quarter.
The firm also cut its stake in Hilton Worldwide Holdings by 26% to 5.4 million shares.
Its biggest holding was investment firm Brookfield with roughly 35 million shares.
Carolina Mandl of Reuters also reports Bridgewater adds Tesla stake, reduces rest of 'Magnificent 7':
Hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates added shares of Tesla to its portfolio in the fourth quarter, while it trimmed exposure to the rest of the "Magnificent Seven" group of U.S. tech and growth stocks, a regulatory filing showed.
The firm founded by investor Ray Dalio ended December with a small stake in Elon Musk's electric carmaker, comprised of 153,589 shares and worth $62 million, according to the filing late on Thursday.
Shares of Tesla are down roughly 13% this year and down more than 26% since their all-time closing high on December 17. However, the stock remains up well over 30% since the November 5 presidential election, with the company seen as benefiting from Musk's close association with President Donald Trump.
The billionaire entrepreneur is heading the Department of Government Efficiency, which is in charge of cutting waste from federal agencies.
Meanwhile, the macro hedge fund made sizeable cuts in the rest of its Magnificent Seven stocks. It slashed its stake in Apple by 40% to 617,203 shares, and reduced its position in Amazon by almost 35%.
Cuts in Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet ranged between 17.3% and 26.4%. However, those positions were still worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
In a recent letter to investors, Bridgewater's co-chief investment officer, Karen Karniol-Tambour, discussed the concentration of investors in AI stocks, saying it "creates significant portfolio diversification challenges."
The fund positions were revealed in quarterly securities filings known as 13Fs. While backward-looking, these snapshots show what funds owned on the last day of the quarter and are one of the few methods by which hedge funds and other institutional investors declare their positions. The filings do not indicate exact timing of purchases or sales and may not reflect current holdings.
The hedge fund did not immediately comment on the changes in its portfolio.
Meanwhile, Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc (META) closed higher for the 20th straight session Friday, its longest win streak ever.
The stock is up over 21% during the nearly 4-week stretch. It is now up 24.4% since the start of 2025 and up 55% over the last year.
And Andrew Kessell of Investopedia reports these tech stocks soared Friday after Nvidia disclosed stakes:
Shares of WeRide (WRD) soared Friday along with other tech stocks after Nvidia (NVDA) disclosed a stake in the Chinese autonomous driving company.
WeRide shares nearly doubled in value during Friday's session, rising more than 80$ after a filing Thursday showed Nvidia held 1.74 million shares as of Dec. 31. WeRide, which operates driverless vehicles in 30 cities across nine countries, made its debut on the Nasdaq in October.
The filing showed Nvidia added a stake in Nebius Group (NBIS), an AI infrastructure company, as well. Shares of Nebius were up nearly 7%. Nvidia rose almost 3%.
Shares of AI voice technology company SoundHound AI (SOUN), delivery robot developer Serve Robotics (SERV), and medical technology firm Nano-X Imaging (NNOX) tumbled as the filing showed Nvidia divested its holdings in those companies. SoundHound shares dropped almost 30%, Serve Robotics shares plunged 40%, and Nano-X fell 11%.
Nvidia also reduced its stake in chip designer Arm Holdings (ARM) to roughly 1.1 million shares from 1.96 million. Its shares finished Friday 5% down more than 3%.
Nvidia also kept its position in Recursion Pharmaceuticals (RXRX) which led to that stock soaring today.
Alright, it's Friday and it's Valentine's Day so let's keep this short and sweet.
It's that time of the year where we get a sneak peek into the holdings of the world's top money managers with a 45-day lag.
Why a 45-day lag and why do they report their holdings once a quarter and not every month?
Because that's the way it is, if it were up to me, they'd have to report their holdings every month with a 3 day lag max.
For the purposes of making this exercise easy, I'm going to use the latest quarterly filings of Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management which are available here:
His top position is Brookfield (BN) which is up more than 70% over the past five years:
Ackman increased his stake in Nike shares which might be bottoming out here:
But it's too early to make that call and fr an uptrend to take hold, I need to see that weekly MACD go positive (we're not there, stock remains below its 10-week exponential moving average; all charts can be accessed for free using stockcharts.com, all you need to do is use classic mode and enter parameters).
More recently, Ackman posted on X that he took a position in Uber and that 5-year weekly chart looks a lot better to me:
There are so many nice charts, for example look at Celestica (CLS) and Upstart (UPST):
Among the top holders of Celestica, you'll find Fidelity and Whale Rock Capital management which shed 30% of its position last quarter:
Among the top holders of Upstart, you see that D.E. Shaw and Two Sigma increased their stake last quarter:
Anyway, I'm just giving you a small taste of how to analyze the data quickly using what top funds bought and then using 5-year weekly chart with exponential 10, 50, 200-week moving averages.
There are a lot more tidbits in here so have fun looking at the data.
The links below take you straight to their top holdings and then click to see where they increased and decreased their holdings (see column headings and click on them).
Top multi-strategy, event driven hedge funds and large hedge fund managers
As the name implies, these hedge funds invest across a wide variety of
hedge fund strategies like L/S Equity, L/S credit, global macro,
convertible arbitrage, risk arbitrage, volatility arbitrage, merger
arbitrage, distressed debt and statistical pair trading. Below are links
to the holdings of some top multi-strategy hedge funds I track
closely:
1) Appaloosa LP
2) Citadel Advisors
3) Balyasny Asset Management
4) Point72 Asset Management (Steve Cohen)
5) Millennium Management
6) Farallon Capital Management
7) Shonfeld Strategic Partners
10) Peak6 Investments
11) Kingdon Capital Management
12) HBK Investments
13) Highbridge Capital Management
14) Highland Capital Management
15) Hudson Bay Capital Management
16) Pentwater Capital Management
17) Sculptor Capital Management (formerly known as Och-Ziff Capital Management)
18) ExodusPoint Capital Management
19) Carlson Capital Management
20) Magnetar Capital
21) Whitebox Advisors
22) QVT Financial
23) Paloma Partners
24) Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisors
25) York Capital Management
Top Global Macro Hedge Funds and Family Offices
These hedge funds gained notoriety because of George Soros, arguably the
best and most famous hedge fund manager. Global macros typically
invest across fixed income, currency, commodity and equity markets.
George Soros, Carl Icahn, Stanley Druckenmiller, Julian Robertson have
converted their hedge funds into family offices to manage their own
money.
1) Soros Fund Management
2) Icahn Associates
3) Duquesne Family Office (Stanley Druckenmiller)
4) Bridgewater Associates
5) Pointstate Capital Partners
6) Caxton Associates (Bruce Kovner)
7) Tudor Investment Corporation (Paul Tudor Jones)
8) Tiger Management (Julian Robertson)
9) Discovery Capital Management (Rob Citrone)
10 Moore Capital Management
11) Rokos Capital Management
12) Element Capital
13) Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust (Michael Larson, the man behind Gates)
Top Quant and Market Neutral Hedge Funds
These funds use sophisticated mathematical algorithms to make their
returns, typically using high-frequency models so they churn their
portfolios often. A few of them have outstanding long-term track records
and many believe quants are taking over the world.
They typically only hire PhDs in mathematics, physics and computer
science to develop their algorithms. Market neutral funds will
engage in pair trading to remove market beta. Some are large asset
managers that specialize in factor investing.
1) Alyeska Investment Group
2) Renaissance Technologies
3) DE Shaw & Co.
4) Two Sigma Investments
5) Cubist Systematic Strategies (a quant division of Point72)
6) Man Group
7) Analytic Investors
8) AQR Capital Management
9) Dimensional Fund Advisors
10) Quantitative Investment Management
11) Oxford Asset Management
12) PDT Partners
13) TPG Angelo Gordon
14) Quantitative Systematic Strategies
15) Quantitative Investment Management
16) Bayesian Capital Management
17) SABA Capital Management
18) Quadrature Capital
19) Simplex Trading
Top Deep Value, Activist, Growth at a Reasonable Price, Event Driven and Distressed Debt Funds
These are among the top long-only funds that everyone tracks. They
include funds run by legendary investors like Warren Buffet, Seth
Klarman, Ron Baron and Ken Fisher. Activist investors like to make
investments in companies where management lacks the proper incentives to
maximize shareholder value. They differ from traditional L/S hedge
funds by having a more concentrated portfolio. Distressed debt funds
typically invest in debt of a company but sometimes take equity
positions.
1) Abrams Capital Management (the one-man wealth machine)
2) Berkshire Hathaway
3) TCI Fund Management
4) Baron Partners Fund (click here to view other Baron funds)
5) BHR Capital
6) Fisher Asset Management
7) Baupost Group
8) Fairfax Financial Holdings
9) Fairholme Capital
10) Gotham Asset Management
11) Fir Tree Partners
12) Elliott Investment Management (Paul Singer)
13) Jana Partners
14) Miller Value Partners (Bill Miller)
15) Highfields Capital Management
16) Eminence Capital
17) Pershing Square Capital Management
18) New Mountain Vantage Advisers
19) Atlantic Investment Management
20) Polaris Capital Management
21) Third Point
22) Marcato Capital Management
23) Glenview Capital Management
24) Apollo Management
25) Avenue Capital
26) Armistice Capital
27) Blue Harbor Group
28) Brigade Capital Management
29) Caspian Capital
30) Kerrisdale Advisers
31) Knighthead Capital Management
32) Relational Investors
33) Roystone Capital Management
34) Scopia Capital Management
35) Schneider Capital Management
36) ValueAct Capital
37) Vulcan Value Partners
38) Okumus Fund Management
39) Eagle Capital Management
40) Sasco Capital
41) Lyrical Asset Management
42) Gabelli Funds
43) Brave Warrior Advisors
44) Matrix Asset Advisors
45) Jet Capital
46) Conatus Capital Management
47) Starboard Value
48) Pzena Investment Management
49) Trian Fund Management
50) Oaktree Capital Management
52) Southeastern Asset Management
Top Long/Short Hedge Funds
These hedge funds go long shares they think will rise in value and short
those they think will fall. Along with global macro funds, they
command the bulk of hedge fund assets. There are many L/S funds but
here is a small sample of some well-known funds.
1) Adage Capital Management
2) Viking Global Investors
3) Greenlight Capital
4) Maverick Capital
5) Pointstate Capital Partners
6) Marathon Asset Management
7) Tiger Global Management (Chase Coleman)
8) Coatue Management
9) D1 Capital Partners
10) Artis Capital Management
11) Fox Point Capital Management
12) Jabre Capital Partners
13) Lone Pine Capital
14) Paulson & Co.
15) Bronson Point Management
16) Hoplite Capital Management
17) LSV Asset Management
18) Hussman Strategic Advisors
19) Cantillon Capital Management
20) Brookside Capital Management
21) Blue Ridge Capital
22) Iridian Asset Management
23) Clough Capital Partners
24) GLG Partners LP
25) Cadence Capital Management
26) Honeycomb Asset Management
27) New Mountain Vantage
28) Penserra Capital Management
29) Eminence Capital
30) Steadfast Capital Management
31) Brookside Capital Management
32) PAR Capital Capital Management
33) Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co
34) Brahman Capital
35) Bridger Management
36) Kensico Capital Management
37) Kynikos Associates
38) Soroban Capital Partners
39) Passport Capital
40) Pennant Capital Management
41) Mason Capital Management
42) Tide Point Capital Management
43) Sirios Capital Management
44) Hayman Capital Management
45) Highside Capital Management
46) Tremblant Capital Group
47) Decade Capital Management
48) Suvretta Capital Management
49) Bloom Tree Partners
50) Cadian Capital Management
51) Matrix Capital Management
52) Senvest Partners
53) Falcon Edge Capital Management
54) Park West Asset Management
55) Melvin Capital Partners (Plotkin shut down Melvin after reeling rom Redditor attack)
56) Owl Creek Asset Management
57) Portolan Capital Management
58) Proxima Capital Management
59) Tourbillon Capital Partners
60) Impala Asset Management
61) Valinor Management
62) Marshall Wace
63) Light Street Capital Management
64) Rock Springs Capital Management
65) Rubric Capital Management
66) Whale Rock Capital
67) Skye Global Management
68) York Capital Management
69) Zweig-Dimenna Associates
Top Sector and Specialized Funds
I like tracking activity funds that specialize in real estate, biotech,
healthcare, retail and other sectors like mid, small and micro caps.
Here are some funds worth tracking closely.
1) Avoro Capital Advisors (formerly Venbio Select Advisors)
2) Baker Brothers Advisors
3) Perceptive Advisors
4) RTW Investments
5) Healthcor Management
6) Orbimed Advisors
7) Deerfield Management
8) BB Biotech AG
9) Birchview Capital
10) Ghost Tree Capital
11) Soleus Capital Management
12) Oracle Investment Management
13) Palo Alto Investors
14) Consonance Capital Management
15) Camber Capital Management
16) Redmile Group
17) Casdin Capital
18) Bridger Capital Management
19) Boxer Capital
21) Bridgeway Capital Management
22) Cohen & Steers
23) Cardinal Capital Management
24) Munder Capital Management
25) Diamondhill Capital Management
26) Cortina Asset Management
27) Geneva Capital Management
28) Criterion Capital Management
29) Daruma Capital Management
30) 12 West Capital Management
31) RA Capital Management
32) Sarissa Capital Management
33) Rock Springs Capital Management
34) Senzar Asset Management
35) Paradigm Biocapital Advisors
36) Sphera Funds
37) Tang Capital Management
38) Thomson Horstmann & Bryant
39) Ecor1 Capital
40) Opaleye Management
41) NEA Management Company
42) Sofinnova Investments
43) Great Point Partners
44) Tekla Capital Management
45) Van Berkom and Associates
Mutual Funds and Asset Managers
Mutual funds and large asset managers are not hedge funds but their
sheer size makes them important players. Some asset managers have
excellent track records. Below, are a few funds investors track closely.
1) Fidelity
2) BlackRock Inc
3) Wellington Management
4) AQR Capital Management
5) Sands Capital Management
6) Brookfield Asset Management
7) Dodge & Cox
8) Eaton Vance Management
9) Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co.
10) Geode Capital Management
11) Goldman Sachs Group
12) JP Morgan Chase & Co.
13) Morgan Stanley
14) Manulife Asset Management
15) UBS Asset Management
16) Barclays Global Investor
17) Epoch Investment Partners
18) Thornburg Investment Management
19) Kornitzer Capital Management
20) Batterymarch Financial Management
21) Tocqueville Asset Management
22) Neuberger Berman
23) Winslow Capital Management
24) Herndon Capital Management
25) Artisan Partners
26) Great West Life Insurance Management
27) Lazard Asset Management
28) Janus Capital Management
29) Franklin Resources
30) Capital Research Global Investors
31) T. Rowe Price
32) First Eagle Investment Management
33) Frontier Capital Management
34) Akre Capital Management
35) Brandywine Global
36) Brown Capital Management
37) Victory Capital Management
38) Orbis Allan Gray
39) Ariel Investments
40) ARK Investment Management
Canadian Asset Managers
Here are a few Canadian funds I track closely:
1) Addenda Capital
2) Letko, Brosseau and Associates
3) Fiera Capital Corporation
4) West Face Capital
5) Hexavest
6) 1832 Asset Management
7) Jarislowsky, Fraser
8) Connor, Clark & Lunn Investment Management
9) TD Asset Management
10) CIBC Asset Management
11) Beutel, Goodman & Co
12) Greystone Managed Investments
13) Mackenzie Financial Corporation
14) Great West Life Assurance Co
15) Guardian Capital
16) Scotia Capital
17) AGF Investments
18) Montrusco Bolton
19) CI Investments
20) Venator Capital Management
21) Van Berkom and Associates
22) Formula Growth
23) Hillsdale Investment Management
Pension Funds, Endowment Funds, Sovereign Wealth Funds and the Fed's Swiss Surrogate
Last but not least, I the track activity of some pension funds,
endowment, sovereign wealth funds and the Swiss National Bank (aka the Fed's Swiss surrogate). Below, a
sample of the funds I track closely:
1) Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMco)
2) Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
3) Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
4) Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec
5) OMERS Administration Corp.
6) Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP)
7) British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI)
8) Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments)
9) PGGM Investments
10) APG All Pensions Group
11) California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS)
12) California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS)
13) New York State Common Fund
14) New York State Teachers Retirement System
15) State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System
16) State of Wisconsin Investment Board
17) State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund
18) Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio
19) STRS Ohio
20) Teacher Retirement System of Texas
21) Virginia Retirement Systems
22) TIAA CREF investment Management
23) Harvard Management Co.
24) Norges Bank
25) Nordea Investment Management
26) Korea Investment Corp.
27) Singapore Temasek Holdings
28) Yale Endowment Fund
29) Swiss National Bank (aka, the Fed's Swiss surrogate)
And JPMorgan’s Meera Pandit and Charles Schwab’s Kevin Gordon, join 'Closing Bell' to discuss the market rotation and frustration with the 'Mag 7'.
Lastly, Andrew Slimmon, Morgan Stanley Investment Management senior portfolio manager, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the latest market trends, why he believes we're in the later stages of a bull market, and more.
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