A humorous factor occurred proper earlier than hibh-beta tech shares set off on a torrid, record-breaking January meltup: not solely did hedge funds dump most of those beleaguered names, additionally they shorted them in file portions (one thing which we appropriately predicted would result in the frenzied brief squeeze that carried over into February), and no one took the improper facet of that commerce greater than household workplaces for the ultra-wealthy, who as we discovered in at this time’s 13F barrage bought tech shares through the fourth quarter proper earlier than the market rallied in 2023.

Some examples: in response to Bloomberg, each Iconiq Capital and the funding agency for the Walton household’s fortune bought shares of cloud-computing firm Snowflake, which has surged 20% this yr after a steep slide in 2022. Stan Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Household Workplace additionally exited Microsoft within the fourth quarter, proper earlier than the tech large gained 13% because the begin of January, after falling 29% final yr. Druckenmiller additionally exited Amazon.com after initiating the place within the third quarter; Glenview and Whale Rock additionally dumped the inventory. AMZN fell 50% in 2022 however is up 19% to this point this yr.

Not everybody was promoting, after all: some hedge funds, those that had been pressured to liquidate their tech holdings earlier, had been good sufficient to dial up their bets on the sector within the fourth quarter. Lone Pine Capital boosted its Microsoft stake by 23%. The inventory was additionally the largest holding of Tiger International Administration (though no matter you do at house youngsters, do not attempt to replicate something Tiger International does). In the meantime, like a real worth investor, Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group greater than tripled its Amazon stake; whereas Tiger Cub Lone Pine boosted its place by 44%.

That stated, the enduring Druckenmiller did not liquidate his complete tech ebook and made at the very least one good tech guess: Nvidia, which in response to Bloomberg now makes up about 4% of Duquesne’s $2 billion US fairness portfolio. Nvidia, seen as a benefactor of the rise of AI, has rallied 57% this yr. It stays to be seen if Nvidia – which two years in the past soared when it was considered because the benefactor of crypto mining – may even crater as soon as the AI craze is gone and when individuals tire of attempting to jailbrake the woke ChatGPT.

Listed here are a number of the different findings from the newest volley of 13F stories, as compiled by Bloomberg:

• Bonds are again: Elliott and Soros Fund Administration each disclosed positions in corporate-bond exchange-traded funds through the fourth quarter. Elliott disclosed a place in HYG, a high-yield company bond ETF. And Soros Fund Administration bought about $255 million price of LQD.
• Glen Kacher’s Mild Road exited Tesla – proper earlier than the inventory doubled – and healthcare platform GoodRx Holdings Inc. The fund purchased shares of AMD valued at $22.3 million and Netflix Inc. valued at $19.3 million.
• Harvard College’s endowment is backtracking on academic providers firm Laureate Schooling. After beginning a place within the firm final quarter, it exited its complete stake, promoting all 101,800 shares.  The college continued to extend its stake in Seize Holdings by about 40%, snapping up $3.7 million extra shares of the corporate, making it the endowment’s fourth-largest US holding.
• Yale College’s endowment continued to extend its present place in Procept BioRobots after beginning a place within the firm final quarter. The college additionally hit the reverse button on oil and fuel firm Riley Exploration Permian after beginning a brand new place final quarter. Yale stored its two different holdings, in Vanguard and iShares ETFs, unchanged.
• In was a boring quarter for Berkshire which trimmed a few of its monetary holdings, lowering its shares in U.S. Bancorp, Financial institution of New York Mellon and Ally Monetary; it additionally slashed its current model new stake in Taiwan Semi (extra right here).
• Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital added Tenet Healthcare to its disclosed investments and exited Intel within the fourth quarter; it added to its holdings in Kyndryl Holdings and decreased its stake in Resideo Applied sciences. Inexperienced Brick Companions was the largest holding, representing 28% of disclosed property
• Soroban exited Yum! Manufacturers Inc. from its disclosed investments and boosted CSX Corp. within the fourth quarter, it additionally decreased its stake in Lowe’s. CSX Corp. was the largest holding, representing 22% of disclosed property.
• Glenview added Common Well being Companies Class B to its disclosed investments and exited Amazon.com Inc. It additionally decreased its stake in Aptiv Plc; Cigna Corp. was the largest holding, representing 15% of disclosed property
• Maverick Capital’s 13F revealed a fund in turmoil: Tiger Cub Lee Ainslie added 122 new buys, although a lot of the new positions had been small, and exited 90 beforehand established positions. His greatest addition was 1.4 million shares in Catalent Inc., an organization that gives supply applied sciences and growth options for medicine, biologics and client well being merchandise. The agency additionally began a brand new place Credo Know-how, snapping up 1.06 million shares. Alternatively, it liquidated its complete stake in Carvana, promoting 735,710 shares. Maverick misplaced round 30% final yr.
• Elliott Funding Administration LP added IShares iBoxx Excessive Yield Company Bond ETF to its disclosed investments and boosted Pinterest Inc. Class A within the fourth quarter, in response to a 13F evaluation by Bloomberg.
• Troubled crypto financial institution Silvergate, which can also be essentially the most shorted Russell title with two thirds of the float brief, noticed a number of model title hedge funds open new positions within the 4th quarter, similtaneously Soros Fund Administration took a modest levered guess within the type of SI places (extra right here).
• Icahn Enterprises LP boosted Icahn Enterprises LP to its disclosed investments and decreased Cheniere Vitality within the fourth quarter; Icahn Enterprises LP was the largest holding, representing 70% of disclosed property
• David Tepper’s Appaloosa Administration bought 300,000 shares of Meta Platforms through the fourth quarter; the inventory represented about 5% of Appaloosa’s $1.3 billion US fairness portfolio as of the fourth quarter. Appaloosa added new positions in Walt Disney. Caesars Leisure and Aptiv throughout This fall. Judging by current occasions, Tepper is most probably out of Disney already. Tepper additionally added to holdings in HCA Healthcare; Constellation Vitality was Appaloosa’s greatest holding, representing 15% of disclosed property
• Viking International elevated its stakes in BioMarin Pharma and UnitedHealth Group. Viking outperformed rivals final yr due to bets on health-care shares, which comprised about one-third of its portfolio on the finish of the yr. Its hedge fund ended the yr down 2.4%.
• WIT, the funding agency that manages the Walton household’s fortune continued to be a fan of exchange-traded funds. WIT LLC, which stands for the Walton Funding Group, has a $3.6 billion US fairness portfolio that’s largely comprised of low-cost ETFs (as a result of, after all). WIT additionally continues to guess on rising markets. Its greatest holding is the $73.5 billion Vanguard FTSE Rising Markets ETF. WIT threw within the towel on Snowflake, the cloud computing firm, and Verve Therapeutics, a genetic medicines firm, through the fourth quarter

Extra to return.