Several hedge funds cut holdings in Big Tech names
Bridgewater cuts Nvidia stake by nearly two-thirds
Discovery Capital takes new positions in Alphabet, Cleveland-Cliffs, health insurers
Tiger Global and Lone Pine Capital reduce stake in Meta
NEW YORK, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s largest hedge funds reduced exposure to “Magnificent Seven” stocks including Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab, Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab, Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab and Meta (META.O), opens new tab in the third quarter, while taking new positions in application software, e-commerce and payments companies, according to regulatory filings on Friday.
During the quarter ended September 30, several funds also reduced their exposure to prominent names in healthcare and energy.
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The latest positions marked a shift from the second quarter when several leading stock-picking firms were much more bullish on Big Tech names after witnessing a boom in artificial intelligence valuations. Since then, those lofty valuations have started to descend.
Markets were broadly up during the third quarter, with the S&P 500 rising by nearly 8%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index (.NDX), opens new tab rose about 9% during the quarter.
Bonds also posted gains on expectations of monetary easing that pushed benchmark 10-year yields down about seven basis points. Yields decline when bond prices rise.
During the quarter, Bridgewater increased its stake in Fiserv , and Discovery initiated a position in the payments software firm. Both funds made their moves before Fiserv reported disappointing results and cut its revenue guidance for the second consecutive quarter. The news led to its market capitalization dropping about $30 billion in a single day.
Bridgewater increased its exposure to sectors such as application software and payments, as it upped its holdings in Adobe (ADBE.O), opens new tab, Dynatrace (DT.N), opens new tab and Etsy (ETSY.N), opens new tab.
Lone Pine Capital and Tiger Global cut their stakes in Facebook parent Meta Platforms by 34.8% and 62.6% respectively, while Bridgewater and Coatue were among the funds that reduced their exposure to Nvidia.
The latest positions were revealed in filings known as 13-Fs, which hedge funds and other institutional investors file at the end of each quarter. While they are backward-looking and do not reveal current holdings or short positions, the filings offer investors a glimpse of the portfolios of often-secretive funds.
Bridgewater, which enjoyed a stellar run during the first nine months of the year as it outperformed its top peers, slashed its stake in Nvidia by nearly two-thirds to 2.5 million shares and in Alphabet by more than 50% to 2.65 million shares.
Discovery Capital, which was founded by Rob Citrone, took new positions in names like Alphabet, steel maker Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF.N), opens new tab, and health insurers Cigna (CI.N), opens new tab and Elevance Health (ELV.N), opens new tab.
Dmitry Balyasny’s multi-strategy hedge fund Balyasny Asset Management increased its stake several-fold in iPhone maker Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab.
Several changes at billionaire Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management were around big AI names. The firm reduced its holdings in AI industry bellwether Nvidia by 14.1% to 9.9 million shares, joining some other high-profile firms such as Bridgewater and Michael Burry’s Scion Asset Management which have reduced their exposure to the company.
Berkshire Hathaway revealed a $4.3 billion stake in Google parent Alphabet and further reduced its stake in Apple, detailing its equity portfolio for the last time before as chief executive officer.
A Bridgewater spokesperson declined to comment on the fund’s latest positions. The other funds did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reporting by Anirban Sen in New York, additional reporting by Davide Barbuscia; editing by Megan Davies and Cynthia Osterman
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Anirban Sen is the Editor in Charge of Market Structure at Reuters in New York where he leads the news agency’s coverage of stock exchanges, and market-making firms including Jane Street and Citadel Securities. Previously Anirban was M&A Editor at Reuters, leading a team of reporters who regularly broke market-moving news about the biggest deals in corporate America. Some of his scoops have included Mars’ $36 billion deal for snack maker Kellanova, design software firm Synopsys’ $35 billion deal for Ansys, and buyout firm GTCR’s $18.5 billion deal for merchant services provider Worldpay. In 2023, Anirban was part of a Reuters team that won a Gerald Loeb Award for the agency’s coverage of the collapse of FTX. After starting with Reuters in Bangalore in 2009, he left in 2013 to work as a technology deals reporter in several leading business news outlets in India, including The Economic Times and Mint. Anirban rejoined Reuters in 2019 as Editor in Charge, Finance, to lead a team of reporters in India, covering everything from investment banking to venture capital.
