The fourth quarter of 2021 saw many of America’s billionaire-owned hedge funds selling growth stocks in large quantities. That’s according to a Goldman Sachs report on 788 of the largest hedge funds’ 13F forms for the period ended Dec. 31, 2021.
“The latest filings show hedge funds positioning for a different equity market environment than the one that has characterized most of the last several years,” says Goldman Sachs strategist Ben Snider.
“Funds continued to rotate away from growth stocks and are now more tilted to value than they have been since 2011. At the sector level, hedge funds slashed positions in tech in favor of energy and financials,” the strategist adds.
Studying which stocks asset managers are taking their capital out of is an interesting exercise for many retail investors. That’s largely because of the “why.” In some cases, they are selling to take profits. In other situations, they could be rotating assets into more appropriate investments based on the current economic environment.
Here are 15 stocks the billionaire set sold off over the past few months. Every quarter, we look at 13F filings from institutional investors to discover not only some of the billionaire set’s favorite stock picks – but also which investments they’re souring on.
Data as of March 2. WhaleWisdom.com and regulatory filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Devon EnergyGetty Images
Market value: $39.0 billionBillionaire investor: Permian Investment Partners LPShares sold: 2,257,219 (-36%) Permian Investment Partners is a New York City-based registered investment advisor with a value-oriented, event-driven long/short investment strategy. The firm’s 13F form from the fourth quarter of 2021 showed $961.8 million in assets invested in 55 holdings.
Devon Energy (DVN, $58.65) is one of those holdings. Even though Permian sold almost 2.3 million shares of the oil and gas producer in Q4, DVN is still Permian’s second-largest holding, accounting for 18.1% of its total assets. Only fellow oil stock NRG Energy (NRG) is higher, with a weighting of 23.5%.
Permian initially acquired Devon shares in the first quarter of 2021, paying an average of $23.18 per share. Considering DVN traded between $35 and $45 in the fourth quarter, it’s safe to assume that the share sale can be attributed to profit-taking.
Shares of the energy stock are up almost 165% over the past year. Based on current prices, the 3.9 million shares Permian still owns are worth more than $233 million. However, the stock is still well off the $120 per-share mark it traded above in 2008, the only time in its 34-year history as a public company it did so.
Devon Energy is sharing its spoils with investors. In February, the company announced a 45% increase in its quarterly dividend to $1.00 per share. The payout equates to a healthy yield of 4.5%. The company also announced that it was increasing its share repurchases by 60% to $1.6 billion, which is about 5% of DVN’s market cap.
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Alibaba Group HoldingGetty Images
Market value: $283.3 billionBillionaire investor: Baillie GiffordShares sold: 4,096,750 (-41%) Baillie Gifford sold out of 19 positions in the fourth quarter and reduced its holdings in 122 others. One of its biggest share sales was its 41% reduction in Alibaba Group Holding (BABA, $105.42). The registered investment advisor first bought BABA in Q3 2014, paying an average of $106.53 per share.
Of Baillie Gifford’s top 10 sales by the number of shares sold in the fourth quarter, Alibaba was its second-largest position, in 68th spot among all holdings.
At the height of Alibaba’s share price in October 2020 – when it was trading above $300 – Baillie Gifford owned 25 million shares. At the end of 2021, it owned 5.9 million BABA shares – a 77% decline in 17 months.
That’s a good thing if you have any money invested with Baillie Gifford. BABA’s stock is down 66% since October 2020. Most of the decline is due to the Chinese government’s ongoing regulatory clampdown of technology companies in the country.
Sometimes it pays to take profits, even if the stock price appears to be heading higher.
Another big sale in terms of dollars was Tesla (TSLA). Baillie Gifford has been a long-time supporter of Elon Musk’s electric vehicle (EV) company. The investment advisor sold 22% of its TSLA stake during the fourth quarter, though the stock still remains the firm’s second-largest holding.
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Meta PlatformsGetty Images
Market value: $566.5 billionBillionaire investor: Jennison AssociatesShares sold: 5,272,957 (-42%)Meta Platforms (FB, $208.11) is the new corporate name for Facebook. It changed its name on Oct. 28, 2021. The company expects to shift its ticker symbol to MRVS – a nod to the metaverse – at some point in 2022. Since FB changed its name, its shares have lost 34% of their value.
New York-based hedge fund Jennison Associates sold 42% of its position in the social media stock in the fourth quarter of 2021. Still, Meta Platforms remains Jennison’s 17th largest holding in its $157.7-billion portfolio. The investment manager first bought FB shares in Q2 2012, and has paid an average price of $108.56 per share over the years.
And while Jennison still owns 7.2 million Meta Platforms shares, it’s nowhere near the largest stakeholder. That distinction belongs to founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who owns 366.9 million FB shares, which was worth $123.4 billion at the end of Q4. However, due to most of these being Class B shares, which come with 10 votes, Zuckerberg controls a majority of the stock.
According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, institutional investors owned 66.8% of FB’s outstanding shares as of Dec. 31, 2021. Traditional investment managers account for 85.4% of the institutional ownership, and Vanguard has the largest position amongst money managers with its 6.7% stake in Meta Platforms’ stock.
Other big sellers of FB stock during the fourth quarter include Capital Research Global Investors and T. Rowe Price, which unloaded roughly 10 million shares apiece.
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T-Mobile USGetty Images
Market value: $156.9 billionBillionaire investor: David Tepper (Appaloosa Management)Shares sold: 1,269,008 (-49%)Appaloosa Management – the hedge fund managed by billionaire investor David Tepper – reduced its stake in 16 positions during the fourth quarter. T-Mobile US (TMUS, $125.61) was the third-largest by shares sold. However, the reduction of T-Mobile’s weighting within Appaloosa’s portfolio was the largest during the quarter, falling to 3.8% from the 7.7% it accounted for at the end of the third quarter.
The hedge fund first bought TMUS in the fourth quarter of 2017, paying an average price per share of $99.35. By selling 1.3 million shares in the final three months of 2021, it locked in some profits considering TMUS traded between $106 and $128 over that period.
TMUS remains Appaloosa’s eighth-largest holding. Of the hedge fund’s top 10 positions, T-Mobile was its largest reduction percentage-wise during the quarter. It wasn’t even close. The next highest was an 8% reduction – just 12,000 shares – in its Alphabet (GOOGL) stake, Appaloosa’s number one holding.
Other big sellers of the communication services stock in the fourth quarter were Fidelity (9.2 million shares), Farallon Capital Management (4.6 million shares) and Janus Henderson Group (2.8 million shares).
T-Mobile stock has had a solid start to 2022, up 8.3% for the year-to-date compared to a nearly 8% deficit for the S&P 500 Index.
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MarqetaGetty Images
Market value: $6.3 billionBillionaire investor: George Soros (Soros Fund Management)Shares sold: 2,976,914 (-54%)Soros Fund Management reported 13F assets of $7.3 billion at the end of the fourth quarter. The fund manager made several large stock sales in the final quarter of 2021, including exiting significant stakes in healthcare name PPD after it was acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) and real estate investment trust (REIT) Vereit after it was taken private in a merger with Realty Income (O).
All told, Soros Fund Management sold out of 65 stocks and reduced positions in 36 – including cutting its stake in payment platform operator Marqeta (MQ, $11.58) by 54%. The sale dropped Marqeta’s weighting in the Soros portfolio to 0.2% from 1.6% at the end of the third quarter. The hedge fund first acquired MQ shares in Q2 2021, paying an average price of $13.32 per share.
In the final three months of 2021, MQ stock traded between $15 and $34. If Soros’ sale of MQ occurred near the high end of this range, it suggests that the hedge fund turned a nice profit.
While the fund manager’s nearly 3 million-share sale was the fourth-highest amongst institutional investors in the fourth quarter, it wasn’t nearly as large as Coatue Management. The New York-based hedge fund unloaded 28.1 million Marqeta shares in Q4 2021.
Vitruvian Partners LLP was another big seller of MQ, reducing its stake in the company from 19.9% of its portfolio to 9.6%. Marqeta remains the investment advisor’s second-largest holding.
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Micron TechnologyGetty Images
Market value: $104.5 billionBillionaire investor: Seth Klarman (Baupost Group)Shares sold: 3,913,000 (-54%)The Baupost Group – the hedge fund founded by billionaire investor Seth Klarman – reduced its holdings in 11 stocks and sold out of nine completely during the final quarter 2021.
Micron Technology (MU, $93.30) was Baupost’s fifth-largest in terms of shares sold in the quarter. However, as the hedge fund’s 11th largest position in its $10.1-billion portfolio, MU represents the biggest reduction percentage-wise during the fourth quarter.
Baupost first started buying shares of Micron in Q3 2020, paying an average price per share of $57.35. Micron’s stock traded between a low of $66 and a high of $97 during 2021’s final three months of trading. Despite selling 3.9 million shares in the fourth quarter, the hedge fund still owned 3.3 million MU shares at the end of December, representing 3% of its total portfolio.
The biggest Micron share sale by an institutional investor in the fourth quarter came at the hands of New York-based broker-dealer SG Americas Securities. It sold nearly 15 million shares during the quarter, slashing its position in MU from 5.5% of its portfolio to 0.8%. The biggest closeout of Micron stock during the fourth quarter was Boston-based hedge fund Arrowstreet Capital LP, which sold all 10.1 million of its shares after first initiating a stake in Q1 2010.
To Micron’s credit, its operations enjoyed a stellar end to the year. The chipmaker reported revenue of $7.7 billion in its fiscal first quarter that ended on Dec. 2. This represented a 33.3% year-over-year rise. MU also brought in earnings of $2.16 per share on a non-GAAP basis in the three month period, 176.9% higher than the year prior.
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BrightSphere Investment GroupGetty Images
Market value: $1.1 billionBillionaire investor: John Paulson (Paulson & Co.)Shares sold: 11,050,431 (-55%)Paulson & Co. had several big stake reductions during the fourth quarter, though none was bigger than its sale of 11.1 million shares of BrightSphere Investment Group (BSIG, $24.37).
BSIG was once a holding company with several investment management affiliates under its umbrella. But over the past few quarters, the company has transformed itself into a single pure-play asset manager with Acadian Asset Management as its only operating subsidiary.
Paulson first bought the financial stock in the third quarter of 2018. It paid an average of $12.86 per share over the years for its stake in BrightSphere. Prior to selling 55% of its stake in BSIG, the asset manager accounted for 14.9% of Paulson’s $3.2-billion 13F portfolio. But even after the sale, it remains the hedge fund’s third-largest position, accounting for 7.1% of its portfolio.
In addition to BSIG, Paulson reduced its stake in three other stocks in Q4. It also closed out six positions.
Cloudera was the biggest closeout, with Paulson shedding all 4.6 million shares after private-equity firms KKR (KKR) and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice took the data analytics company private in October. At the end of September, it accounted for 2.1% of the hedge fund’s portfolio.
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DoorDashGetty Images
Market value: $36.1 billionBillionaire investor: Philippe Laffont (Coatue Management)Shares sold: 6,522,345 (-68%)New York-based hedge fund Coatue Management – run by billionaire investor Philippe Laffont – dashed to the exit in the fourth quarter when it came to its position in DoorDash (DASH, $103.62).
At the end of September, DASH accounted for 7.9% of the hedge fund’s $22.6-billion portfolio, but after selling 6.5 million shares between October and December, its position in the food delivery platform fell to 1.9%.
In the fourth quarter, Coatue closed out 14 positions and reduced holdings in 39 stocks, including DoorDash. Of the institutional investors tracked by WhaleWisdom, Coatue was the second-largest seller of DASH shares in Q4 2021. Only SB Investment Advisers, one of SoftBank’s investment businesses, sold more, unloading 10.0 million DASH shares.
Despite its large sale of DoorDash stock during the fourth quarter, Laffont’s hedge fund has a strong belief in the foodservice industry.
In October 2020, Coatue led the $20 million Series A funding of Lunchbox, a company that provides restaurants and ghost kitchens with the technology necessary to compete online and in-person. In early February, Coatue led a $50 million Series B funding round.
Coatue also appears to be a firm believer in the future of electric vehicles. It’s top two positions are electric truck manufacturer Rivian (RIVN) and EV maker Tesla, with stakes in these two stocks accounting for 16.2% and 6.9% of the hedge fund’s total portfolio, respectively.
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Apollo Global ManagementGetty Images
Market value: $39.0 billionBillionaire investor: Chase Coleman III (Tiger Global Management)Shares sold: 15,993,288 (-71%)Tiger Global Management’s 71% reduction in its Apollo Global Management (APO, $64.93) stake in Q4 cut its weighting in the alternative asset manager from 2.7% to just 1.0%. APO is now Tiger Global’s 28th largest position in its $45.9 billion portfolio.
The hedge fund’s sale of APO stock is a case of profit-taking. It first bought Apollo shares in Q1 2017, paying an average price of $25.76 per share. The stock traded between $58 and $80 during the fourth quarter. It appears the selling was well-timed too, with APO falling down to $62 in early 2022.
Off the charts, Apollo had a solid end to 2021. In mid-February, the company reported distributable fourth-quarter earnings of $483 million – 52% higher year-over-year. For all of 2021, it posted record distributable earnings of $2.0 billion, more than double the $892.8 million it reported in 2020.
Apollo had realizations of $25.7 billion in 2021, 74% of which was generated through its private equity investments. The remainder was from its credit and real estate businesses.
Despite the stock’s slow start to 2022 – due to broad-market headwinds – APO remains an excellent investment. As such, Tiger Global continues to hold 6.4 million shares as of the end of the fourth quarter.
Other big sales by the hedge fund in Q4 2021 included a 73% reduction in its Roblox (RBLX) stake and an 81% cut to its Warby Parker (WRBY) position.
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AbbVie Getty Images
Market value: $264.6 billionBillionaire investor: Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway)Shares sold: 11,364,927 (-78%)Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) completely sold out of two stocks in the fourth quarter. They were satellite radio provider Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI) and Israel-based drug manufacturer Teva Pharmaceutical (TEVA). Neither held a major stake within the Berkshire equity portfolio, accounting for a 0.2% combined weighting.
Buffett also reduced positions in eight stocks during the fourth quarter. In terms of dollar value, the holding company’s 78% reduction in AbbVie (ABBV, $149.57) shares was its biggest during the three-month period.
Berkshire first acquired AbbVie shares in Q3 2020, paying an average price of $90.86 per share. The sale of 11.4 million shares during the fourth quarter was an opportunity to take profits on the maker of blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira. ABBV shares traded between $107 and $135 in the final three months of last year.
In 2022, AbbVie shares have gained 10.5% for the year-to-date, so it’s possible Berkshire could take more profits off the table in Q1 2022. Investors will find out in mid-May.
While the sale of AbbVie shares didn’t put a big dent in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio, the holding company was easily the top seller of ABBV stock in the fourth quarter. The next highest seller of the pharmaceutical company’s shares was Fidelity, which sold 4.6 million ABBV shares in Q4 2021.
Berkshire still owns 3.0 million shares of the Dividend Aristocrat despite the selloff. That keeps it in the top 75 institutional owners.
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BlockGetty Images
Market value: $72.1 billionBillionaire investor: Stephen Mandel (Lone Pine Capital)Shares sold: 5,103,392 (-94%)BofA Global Research analyst Jason Kupferberg upgraded Square parent Block (SQ, $124.26) in mid-February to Buy from Neutral (Hold). The analyst suggests the stock is “quite undervalued” after a recent selloff in the shares.
“We view SQ’s competitive positioning favorably over the long-term, and are believers in the strategic rationale of the Afterpay acquisition,” Kupferberg writes. “Although there is somewhat limited visibility on the trajectory of the Cash App business, our sum-of-the-parts analysis suggests an implied valuation of just around $6.5 billion for Cash App, which we think is way too low.”
Did Lone Pine Capital sell too soon?
The hedge fund first bought SQ in Q1 2019, paying an average price of $199.09 per share. Considering the stock traded between $158 and $240 in the fourth quarter, the investor may have sold the majority of its SQ shares to lock in profits before they disappeared entirely.
Other large stock sales by Lone Pine in the fourth quarter included closing out its positions in India-based financial firm ICICI Bank (IBN), social media stock Twitter (TWTR), fintech StoneCo (STNE) and Chinese gaming company Bilibili (BILI).
For those who still own SQ, Block’s latest results caused its shares to spike 26% on Feb. 25, after the payments processor said that gross profit for Cash App would continue to grow throughout 2022.
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MercadoLibreGetty Images
Market value: $57.5 billionBillionaire investor: Winslow Capital ManagementShares sold: 132,967 (-100%)MercadoLibre (MELI, $1,140.90) was one of 10 stocks that Minneapolis-based hedge fund Winslow Capital Management closed out during the fourth quarter. Other than MELI, Edwards Lifesciences (EW) was the largest position as a percentage of its portfolio that Winslow sold entirely.
Winslow Capital first bought shares of the Latin American e-commerce and payments company in Q1 2021, according to WhaleWisdom.com, paying an average price of $1,670.28 per share. Over the past year, MercadoLibre’s stock has lost more than 32% of its value. Since its 52-week high of $1,970.13 in early September 2021, it has shed 42%.
The biggest seller of MELI shares in the fourth quarter was California-based hedge fund WCM Investment Management. It sold 1.6 million shares over the three-month period while maintaining a relatively tiny position of 10,665 shares. WCM first owned MELI shares in Q1 2013, paying an average price of $565.83 per share.
In February, MercadoLibre delivered mixed fourth-quarter results that included a 73.9% year-over-year increase in revenue, excluding currency. The company also had $8.0 billion in gross merchandise volume during the quarter, 32.2% higher than the year prior, excluding currency.
However, it lost $46.1 million during the quarter, or 89 cents per share, three cents wider than the average analyst estimate.
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NvidiaGetty Images
Market value: $603.6 billionBillionaire investor: GQG Partners Shares sold: 15,135,970 (-100%)Ft. Lauderdale-based GQG Partners sold its entire stake in Nvidia (NVDA, $242.20) in the final quarter of 2021. The investment firm first bought shares of the chipmaker back in Q4 2019, paying an average price of $170.94 per share.
GQG’s NVDA stock sale is a clear example of an investment firm locking in substantial profits, with shares trading between $195 and $333 over the course of the fourth quarter. It was also extremely well-timed. Year-to-date, shares of NVDA are down 18.9%, due in part to broad-market headwinds.
In early February, Nvidia announced it was ending its $40-billion acquisition of Arm, the U.K.-based provider of semiconductor technologies that are under licensing arrangements to most of the world’s major device manufacturers, amid steep regulatory hurdles.
Overall, GQG reduced its position in 15 stocks during the fourth quarter while entirely closing out 31 stakes. At the end of September 2021, NVDA accounted for 8.6% of the investment firm’s $40.3-billion portfolio reported in its 13F. Other big firms reducing their positions in Nvidia during the quarter include Loomis Sayles & Company (-4.6 million shares) and Morgan Stanley (-3.7 million shares).
The investment firm’s largest position at the end of the fourth quarter was Alphabet with its 8.2% weighting. GQG added to Alphabet and 37 other stocks in the fourth quarter.
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PfizerGetty Images
Market value: $268.2 billionBillionaire investor: Jim Simons (Renaissance Technologies)Shares sold: 7,457,601 (-100%) Renaissance Technologies’ 13F at the end of December said the hedge fund had $80.4 billion invested in 3,860 stocks. Of those, it reduced holdings in 1,633 and closed out positions in 549 stocks.
Although the sale of its Pfizer (PFE, $47.70) stock represented only 0.4% of the hedge fund’s portfolio, it was the largest among completely exited positions in terms of shares sold.
It also exited its stake in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) during the fourth quarter, which had accounted for 0.9% of its portfolio at the end of Q3. The hedge fund also sold 11% of its Novo-Nordisk (NVO) stake, though it is still Renaissance’s largest holding at 2.7% of the portfolio.
As for Pfizer, Renaissance first bought shares of the COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer in Q2 2021, paying an average price of $41.79 per share. PFE traded between $41 and $62 during the fourth quarter. Since its December highs, the stock has lost more than 22% of its value.
Pfizer announced in early February that it would generate $32 billion in sales in fiscal 2022 from its COVID-19 vaccine that is co-developed with BioNTech (BNTX) and another $22 billion for Paxlovid, its oral COVID-19 antiviral pill. That’s almost $3 billion less than analyst estimates.
Renaissance sold the second-largest number of Pfizer shares during the quarter, behind only Boston Partners, which sold 8.7 million shares.
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PinterestGetty Images
Market value: $17.1 billionBillionaire investor: Strategy Capital LLCShares sold: 1,561,850 (-100%)Strategy Capital is a Silicon Valley-based hedge fund with approximately $1.1 billion in 13F assets at the end of Q4 2021. It finished the quarter with a focused portfolio of eight holdings after selling its entire stake in Pinterest (PINS, $26.03).
While selling 100% of its Pinterest shares, Strategy Capital added to all of its other holdings. That’s not a vote of confidence in the social media platform.
The hedge fund first acquired Pinterest shares in Q2 2020, paying an average price of $26.07 per share. PINS traded between $38 and $66 in the fourth quarter. With Pinterest hitting a 52-week low of $22.31 in late February, it’s a good thing for the hedge fund’s investors that it did sell.
Of the investment firms that exited Pinterest positions in the fourth quarter, Strategy Capital’s was the largest in terms of previous weighting, with PINS accounting for 7.6% of the hedge fund’s portfolio at the end of Q3. Still, there were eight other firms who closed out PINS stakes in Q4 that had a weighting of 1% or more at the end of September 2021.
While investors don’t seem to like Pinterest, analysts do. Of the 33 who cover it, only one has a Sell. In addition, the average target price is $39.88, with a low price target of $20 and a high one of $59.
Strategy Capital, it seems, clearly wasn’t as enthusiastic toward PINS heading into 2022.