As quarterly SEC filings are all done, our guru portfolio now give the latest view of the top stocks owned by star investors like Steve Cohen’s Point72 and of course Warren Buffett. This blog post also covers the most popular stocks among our guru investors and which investors massively sold NVDA 📈 stock in Q2 2024.
Guru investor performance check
Year-to-date, Trian Capital’s top 10 holdings outperform our set of guru portfolios with a 41% gain, driven by the stellar performance of GE 📈 and ALL 📈.
This stand-out performance of 41% year-to-date is matched only by our “Best of Activist” portfolio, in which the top 3 performers were NVDA 📈, THC 📈 and GE 📈. The “Best of Activist” portfolio captures the ten highest score stocks – by Ziggma Stock Score – from our set of activist investor top holdings.
As usual, Steve Cohen’s Point72 is among the top performers, handily outperforming the S&P with a 33% year-to-date performance, closely followed by Bridgewater.
The benefits of following investors like Point72
Following guru investors like Point72 offers valuable insights into successful investment strategies and market trends. These investors employ highly advanced and battle-tested investment strategies that can guide private investors to an attractive opportunity set of investment ideas.
Outsized returns
The most straightforward benefit of following what these investors own is to boost your investment return. All of the guru investors we track have beaten the market over decades – albeit there can be ups and downs over short periods. They have made double digit returns for wealthy investors over many years.
View star investors’ top holdings.
While the everyday investor may not be able get into their funds, what these funds own is visible to anyone – granted with a couple of months delay until the investors issues their 13F filing. However, this is generally not a big issue as many positions are held over years.
The brightest minds working for you – for free
By co-investing with guru investors on some of their best ideas, you will indirectly have some of the brightest minds in investing work for you. When it comes to activist campaigns, these tend to run over multiple years. During this time, the activist investor will activate a team of analysts, consultants, lawyers and sometimes even public relations experts with objective of creating shareholder value. Given the long time frame, the target return is generally well in excess of 100%.
Risk minimization
Highly successful activist or hedge fund investors will not embark on crazy bets. As the top holdings table below illustrates, the stocks in their portfolio typically relate to sound companies with a great product or market position or even both. The investor may identify a mispricing by the market or operational deficiencies at the company level. Yet, with the underlying business being sound, downside risk tends to be limited.
Top holdings
Our guru investor top holdings range from tech large caps to small unknown metals and homebuilder stocks, such as TFPM 📈, owned by Elliott and GRBK 📈, owned by Greenlight Capital.
Given that Elliott’s estimated average cost is around $12.3 and that it recently further increased its stake to 67%, it’s fair assumption that Elliott will seek a stock price in excess of the current level of $17.38 for its exit.
We covered Greenlight’s angle on GRBK in our recent blog post “Shareholder activism: Why does it matter to you. Our top five activist stocks.”
AMZN 📈 is getting a strong vote of confidence by both Third Point, an activist fund, and Point72.
| INVESTOR | TOP HOLDING |
| Activist: Elliott | TFPM 📈 |
| Activist: Greenlight | GRBK 📈 |
| Activist: Pershing Square | HLT 📈 |
| Activist: Third Point | AMZN 📈 |
| Activist: Trian | JHG 📈 |
| Hedge fund: Berkshire | AAPL 📈 |
| Hedge fund: Abrams Capital | LOAR 📈 |
| Hedge fund: Appaloosa | BABA 📈 |
| Hedge fund: Baupost | LBTYK 📈 |
| Hedge fund: Bridgewater | IVV 📈 |
| Hedge fund: Point72 | AMZN 📈 |
| Hedge fund: Rennaissance | PLTR 📈 |
Massive divestment from NVDA
Appaloosa, Third Point, and Point72 recently sold a significant portion of their NVDA 📈 holdings. David Tepper of Appaloosa has been particularly vocal about his concern about a potential AI bubble, as history suggests that no “next-big-thing” technology avoids a bubble-bursting event. Other triggers for these decisions were increased competition in the AI hardware space and the high valuation.
So these invesors decided to lock in gains and shift towards undervalued or cyclical stocks with better risk-reward profiles.
What have Warren Buffett and Steve Cohen’s Point72 been up to?
In terms of its composition, Warren Buffet’s portfolio was virtually unchanged. However, a closer look reviews a major reduction of its stake in AAPL 📈, from a 40.8% to 31.3% portfolio share. Buffett also sold shares in CVX 📈 while adding to his position in OXY 📈.
Point72 to the contrary made some notable portfolio additions. It added a major stake in AAPL and started building positions in COP 📈 and CMCS 📈.
Start following star investors like Point72
Following star investors like Point72 offers a unique advantage for those looking to navigate the complexities of the stock market. With their proven track records of beating the market, firms like Point72 successfully leverage deep research, diversified strategies, and advanced data analytics to capitalize on emerging trends and minimize risk.
By observing their moves, retail investors gain insights into sophisticated investment strategies that are often inaccessible through traditional approaches.
Ultimately, these investors provide a blueprint for success, blending expertise and innovation to consistently deliver strong returns, even in volatile markets.
Disclosure
Ziggma team members presently hold shares in some of the stocks mentioned in this article.
Important Notice
This article is not investment advice. We cannot predict whether these stocks will go up or down. Our analysis is centered entirely on publicly available information. Please do your own homework prior to making an investment decision.
Investors should be aware that activist investors’ 13F filings may not give a complete and timely picture of a firm’s holdings. The size of a firm’s holding may differ between the time of the filing and when this article was published.