By Carolina Mandl and David Randall
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Tech stocks once again grabbed the attention of the world's biggest funds in the second quarter, regulatory filings showed, as the S&P 500 rallied to a series of record highs that preceded more recent turmoil in U.S. equities.
Buyers of tech stocks ranged from Renaissance Technologies, which purchased 1.5 million shares of chipmaker Nvidia to Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, which more than tripled its Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) position to 600,000 shares.
The positioning was disclosed in 13-F filings, a snapshot of how funds were positioned at the end of the quarter. Though they do not reveal current holdings, they are one of the few ways to get a look at the portfolios of often-secretive market players such as hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds.
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 the Federal Reserve will be able to lower U.S. inflation without hurting growth.
Markets turned frothy at the start of the third quarter as worries over rich valuations hit the shares of many tech heavyweights. Concerns over the U.S. economy and the unwinding of a global, yen-based carry trade roiled markets further, spurring a sharp early August plunge in the S&P 500. The index has recently made up much of those losses.
Here is a snapshot of how some of the biggest funds were positioned at the end of June:
BRIDGEWATER ASSOCIATES
The macro hedge fund founded by legendary investor Ray Dalio more than doubled its stake in Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) to 2.6 million shares, a position valued at $551.3 million at the end of June. The fund roughly doubled its shares in Microsoft to 1.09 million, worth $487.3 million. But it slashed its Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stake by nearly three-quarters to 469,324 shares, or $98.8 million.
SOROS FUND MANAGEMENT
Not all big funds were tech buyers. The family office of George Soros reduced its stake in Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by nearly 39% to just under 915,000 shares, worth $166.7 million. It cut its stake in Amazon by just over 26% to around 290,850 shares, worth $56.2 million.
Outside of tech, it added a $12.7 million position in UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH). The fund also cut its stake in weight-loss drugmaker Novo Nordisk (CSE:NOVOb) while raising its stake in Merck & Co to 300,000 shares worth $37.1 million.
LIGHT STREET CAPITAL
Tech-focused equity hedge fund Light Street Capital added 77,459 shares of Apple while dumping all 110,000 of its shares in Alphabet and also sold 46,000 shares in Microsoft in the second quarter. The fund 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 also trimmed its Nvidia exposure.
RENAISSANCE TECHNOLOGIES AND OTHERS
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 about 1.5 million shares over the quarter.
Large asset managers including BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), State Street (NYSE:STT), and Vanguard made significant purchases as well. Texas-based Twin Tree Asset Management was among the funds that closed out of its Nvidia position by selling nearly 900,000 shares.
TIGER GLOBAL MANAGEMENT
Chase Coleman's hedge fund added 1.9 million shares in Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), totaling $370 million. Outside of tech, it added a new $1.2 billion position in UnitedHealth Group - or 2.3 million shares. It made no changes to its positions in so-called Magnificent Seven tech and growth stocks, which included Nvidia, Alphabet and Amazon.
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 as well as Molina Healthcare, which provides healthcare services under the government-backed programs, and payments company Shift4.
ROKOS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
The macro hedge fund run by Chris Rokos sold a $164.9 million position in Apple totaling 961,403 shares that it held at the end of the first quarter, while also reducing its stake in Alphabet by almost 90%. But Rokos increased its stakes in other Magnificent Seven stocks: Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft and Amazon.
SOROS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
The family office of George Soros' son Robert Soros dissolved its 63,640 share stake in Microsoft worth $26.6 million at the end of March, and sold all 103,000 shares it owned in Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) in the second quarter, while also reducing exposure to other big tech companies, such as Amazon, Uber Technologies, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Meta. 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, selling nearly 1.2 million shares. It tripled its position in the Brazilian digital-banking company Nu Holdings, adding about 2.6 million shares, and added to existing call positions – which are typically seen as bullish - in large technology stocks including PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL), Microsoft, and Meta.
The fund held roughly $20.7 billion in U.S. 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 during the second quarter. Jana owned 1.15 million shares on June 30, equivalent to a near 2% stake.