Factbox: Tech stocks in focus as investors eye latest filings from funds

Nu Holdings

14/08/2024 20:39

(Updates with more funds)
    By Carolina Mandl and David Randall
       NEW YORK, Aug 14 (Reuters) - 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% from the beginning of April until
the end of June, notching nine consecutive record highs in a
rally fueled 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  NVDA.O , 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:

        RENAISSANCE TECHNOLOGIES (and others) 
  
        AI-giant Nvidia  NVDA.O , 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  QCOM.O , totaling $370 million. Outside of tech, it
added a new $1.2 billion position in UnitedHealth Group  UNH.N 
- 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  GOOGL.O  and
Amazon  AMZN.O .
        
  
        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  HPP.N  and Molina Healthcare  MOH.N , which provides
healthcare services under the government-backed programs, and
payments company Shift4  FOUR.N .     
        
  
    ROKOS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
    The macro hedge fund run by Chris Rokos sold a $164.9
million position in Apple  AAPL.O  - totaling 961,403 shares -
that it held at the end of the first quarter, while also
reducing its stake in Alphabet  GOOGL.O  by almost 90%. But
Rokos increased its stakes in other so-called Magnificent Seven
stocks: Meta Platforms  META.O , Nvidia  NVDA.O , Microsoft
 MSFT.O  and Amazon  AMZN.O .     
    
    SOROS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
    The family office of Robert Soros completely dissolved its
stake 63,640 share stake in Microsoft, worth $26.6 million at
the end of March, and sold all 103,000 shares they owned in
Advanced Micro Devices  AMD.O  in the second quarter, while also
reducing exposure to other big tech companies, such as Amazon
 AMZN.O , Uber Technologies  UBER.N , Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing Company  TSM.N  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 Allurion Technologies Inc  ALUR.N , selling
nearly 1.2 million shares. It tripled its position in the
Brazilian digital banking company Nu Holdings Ltd  NU.N , adding
approximately 2.6 million shares, and added to existing call
positions – which are typically seen as bullish - in large
technology stocks including PayPal  PYPL.O , Microsoft  MSFT.O ,
and Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc  META.O . 
    The fund held roughly $20.7 billion in US stocks in the
second quarter. In the first quarter, it had slashed its
holdings nearly in half, to $18 billion. 
    
    JANA PARTNERS
    Activist investor Jana Partners built a new stake in U.S.
enterprise software company BlackLine Systems  BL.O  during the
second quarter. Jana owned 1.15 million shares on June 30,
equivalent to a near 2% stake.
    

 (Reporting by Carolina Mandl and David Randall in New York;
Additional reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Ira
Iosebashvili and Nick Zieminski)
 ((carolina.mandl@thomsonreuters.com; +1 (917) 891-4931;))