The biggest hedge fund in the world recently bought more shares of some of the Magnificent Seven tech stocks and cut its stake in a Chinese company that makes electric cars in half.
In the first quarter, Bridgewater Associates put a lot of money into Apple stock, more than doubled its stake in Nvidia shares, tripled its investment in Microsoft stock, and decreased its stake in NIO shares. In a form it sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the fund wrote about the stock trades.
When asked for a comment on the stock trades, Bridgewater didn’t answer. After being started by Ray Dalio in 1975, the hedge fund had $97.2 billion in assets as of June 30, 2023. This made it the biggest fund in the world by assets. Dalio stopped being CEO of Bridgewater in 2017, but he is still a chief investment officer mentor there.
During the first quarter, Apple stock fell 11% while the S&P 500 rose 10%. So far in the second quarter, shares of the company that makes iPhones are up 11%, while the index is up 1%.
The Wall Street Journal said earlier this month that Apple has been working on its own chip that will run AI software in servers in data centers. A chip like this could help the business win the AI arms race. Apple didn’t want to say anything about the report. Apple’s second fiscal quarter, which ended on March 30, was good, and the company also bought back more shares of stock.
From only 1,100 shares at the end of 2023 to 1.8 million shares at the end of the first quarter, Bridgewater’s Apple stake grew by a huge amount.
The fund bought 436,100 more Nvidia shares, bringing the total number of shares it owned in the AI chip maker to 704,600 at the end of the first quarter.
Before its next earnings report on May 22, Nvidia stock has been going up. A lot is riding on the results of the first quarter, and the numbers in the most recent earnings report broke all kinds of records. Jensen Huang, CEO and co-founder, got paid 60% more in the last fiscal year.
Nvidia stock shot up 82% in the first quarter, and it’s up 2.3% so far in the second.
It went up 12% in the first quarter, but it has been flat since the end of March.
A report in the Journal says that Microsoft recently asked its cloud computing and AI staff in China to move to places like the U.S., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. Tensions between the US and China are rising, so the company is taking action. Microsoft said that the company had shared an optional internal transfer opportunity, but they wouldn’t say why they were doing this. A lot of money was made in the fiscal third quarter, which ended on March 31.
ADRs worth 1.3 million NIO were sold by the fund in the first quarter, lowering its stake to 1.4 million ADRs.
In April, NIO delivered a lot more EVs than in March and a year ago. The price war among Chinese EV makers led to the gains. Another Chinese company that makes electric vehicles (EVs) went public in the U.S. earlier this month, making the competition even tougher.
One quarter, NIO ADRs lost half of their value. This quarter, they’re up 17% so far.
Inside Scoop is a regular column in Barron’s that talks about stock deals made by “insiders” like corporate executives and board members, as well as big shareholders, politicians, and other well-known people. Because they are insiders, these investors have to tell the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups about any stock trades they make.
