No, you can’t get rich simply by copying their moves, but there’s still something irresistible about following the top stock picks of the billionaire set.
Consider that the billionaires listed below have larger-than-life reputations when it comes to investing other rich people’s money. Meanwhile, their resources for research, as well as their intimate connections to insiders and others, can give them unique insight into their stock picks.
Studying which stocks they’re chasing with their capital (or which stocks the billionaires are selling off, for that matter) can be an edifying exercise for retail investors.
There’s a reason the rich get richer, for one thing. But it’s also helpful to see where billionaires sometimes make mistakes – at least in the short term. All investors are fallible, after all. Those who’ve amassed multibillion-dollar personal fortunes have merely been right more often than they’ve been wrong.
Here are 15 of the most recent top stock picks from the billionaire class. In each case, the billionaire below has initiated a substantial position or added to an existing one. Several of these investments are popular blue-chip stocks, while others keep a much lower profile. Some of these names might even surprise you.
Prices are as of March 3. Data is courtesy of S&P Global Market Intelligence, YCharts, WhaleWisdom.com, AUM13F.com, Forbes and regulatory filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission, unless otherwise noted. Stocks are ranked in reverse order of their weight in the selected billionaire investor’s equity portfolio.
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15. Procter & GambleGetty Images
Billionaire investor: Ray Dalio (Bridgewater Associates)Stake size: $848.8 million Percent of portfolio: 4.9%Ordinarily a stock has to account for at least 5% of a billionaire’s portfolio to be included on this list. But in the case of Procter & Gamble (PG, $154.36) and Ray Dalio, we just had to make an exception.
Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates is the largest hedge fund in the world, with $223 billion in assets under management (AUM). Dalio, who founded the Westport, Connecticut-based fund in 1975, has an estimated net worth of $20 billion, according to Forbes.
So it’s notable that Procter & Gamble, at 4.9% of Bridgewater’s portfolio, is now No. 2 among hedge fund’s stock picks. (PG accounted for just 3.6% of the portfolio in the previous quarter.) Only the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), at 5.2% of the fund, is a larger position.
Interestingly, Bridegwater upped its stake in the Dividend Aristocrat by 10% during the fourth quarter of 2021, and held 5.2 million shares in the consumer staples giant worth $848.8 million as of Dec. 31. It’s almost like Dalio anticipated the market’s hard turn away from pricey growth names and into value stocks in 2022.
Procter & Gamble – as defensive a dividend stalwart as they come – beat the broader market handily over the first two months of the year.
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14. DanaherGetty Images
Billionaire investor: Daniel Loeb (Third Point)Stake size: $954.1 millionPercent of portfolio: 6.7%Billionaire hedge fund macher Daniel Loeb, with an estimated net worth of $4 billion, has owned Danaher (DHR, $276.57) stock since the third quarter of 2015. And recent underperformance will in no way shake him from his conviction.
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Loeb’s Third Point hedge fund ($21.1 billion AUM) upped its stake by 1% in the fourth quarter, bringing its total holdings to 2.9 million shares worth $954.1 million as of Dec. 31. Danaher is the New York hedge fund’s second largest position, at 6.7% of the portfolio. Only cybersecurity company SentinelOne (S), at 9.4% of the fund, accounts for more of Third Point’s assets.
Danaher’s appeal stems from its exposure to a variety of industries, including medical, industrial and commercial manufacturing, via subsidiaries such as Beckman Coulter and Cepheid. The company makes a wide array of diagnostic tools and systems, which have become especially relevant to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries amid the fight against COVID-19.
The DHR position has been a winner for Loeb over the long haul – shares are up more than 420% since the end of Q3 2015 – but it has been less-than-stellar of late. The stock pick added more than 7% in the fourth quarter of 2021, which lagged the broader market. And it has lost more than 16% for the year-to-date in 2022, which also lags the broader market.
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13. Macy’sGetty Images
Billionaire investor: David Tepper (Appaloosa Management)Stake size: $264.3 million Percent of portfolio: 6.8%Department store operator Macy’s (M, $26.03) is a bold way to bet on consumer spending, and David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management ($13.5 billion AUM) is all about it in a big way.
Few brick-and-mortar retailers have struggled as much as department stores amid the rise in e-commerce. The onset of the pandemic and its punishing effect on foot traffic only made the industry that much harder.
But the Carolina Panthers owner didn’t amass an estimated net worth of $15.8 billion by shying away from risk. Macy’s stock hit an all-time high in July 2015. By the time Tepper’s Short Hills, New Jersey, hedge fund initiated its stake in the fourth quarter of 2020, M stock had lost roughly 90% of its value.
Tepper clearly spotted a bargain, and was he ever right. M shares have more than quadrupled since he began stashing the retailer alongside his other top stock picks.
And Tepper has hardly been one and done. Appaloosa upped its stake in Macy’s by 44% in Q4. The fund owned more than 10 million shares worth $264 million as of Dec. 31. At 6.8% of the portfolio, the department store operator is now Tepper’s third largest holding.
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12. Ginkgo BioworksGetty Images
Billionaire investor: Andreas Halvorsen (Viking Global Investors)Stake size: $2.6 billion Percent of portfolio: 7.5%Biotechnology research and development company Ginkgo Bioworks (DNA, $3.86) went public in September after completing a SPAC merger, and some billionaires couldn’t wait to get a hold of shares.
Andreas Halvorsen, with an estimated net worth of $6.6 billion, participated in the initial listing and then upped his stake in Q4. His Viking Global Investors hedge fund ($42.1 billion AUM) increased its holdings by 2%, or 9 million shares, in the final three months of 2021.
Indeed, Greenwich, Connecticut-based Viking held 312 million shares worth $2.6 billion as of Dec. 31. At 7.5% of the portfolio, Ginkgo Bioworks is easily Halvorsen’s largest position. General Electric (GE), at 4.9% of the portfolio, is No. 2.
Billionaires like Halvorsen are attracted to the company’s unique competitive advantages in a fast-growing field, analysts say.
“With $1.7 billion of cash on hand and a unique platform for scaling the biological engineering of microorganisms for industrial, consumer and pharma applications, Ginkgo should be able to leverage secular trends in favor of synthetic biology into a $1 billion sales platform in 2025 coupled with equity stakes worth more than $1 billion,” writes Jefferies analyst Laurence Alexander, who initiated coverage of DNA in late November with a Buy rating.
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11. JD.comGetty Images
Billionaire investor: Chase Coleman, III (Tiger Global Management) Stake size: $3.8 billion Percent of portfolio: 8.2%Hedge-fund legend Chase Coleman III, with an estimated net worth of $10.3 billion, once again raised his bet on JD.com (JD, $67.83) during the fourth quarter. The move showed faith in the Chinese e-commerce giant despite heightened regulatory scrutiny of the sector.
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Coleman upped Tiger Global Management’s stake by 5%, or 2.6 million shares, in Q4. The New York hedge fund ($79.1 billion AUM) owned a total of 53.7 million shares worth $3.8 billion as of Dec. 31. At 8.2% of its portfolio, JD.com remains Tiger Global’s top stock pick.
Tiger Global first bought shares in JD.com in the fourth quarter of 2014, and it has been a highly successful bet over the long term. More recently, however, Chinese e-commerce stocks have tumbled as regulators push for more oversight and restrictions. JD stock has lost almost 30% over the past 52 weeks vs. a gain of nearly 13% for the broader market.
Coleman apparently liked the discount afforded by the selloff and clearly remains bullish on the so-called Amazon.com (AMZN) of China’s long-term prospects.
With 3.5% of JD.com’s shares outstanding, Tiger Global is the company’s fourth largest shareholder, behind only Tencent (TCEHY), company founder and CEO Richard Liu Qiangdong and Walmart (WMT).
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10. Amazon.comGetty Images
Billionaire investor: Stephen Mandel (Lone Pine Capital)Stake size: $2.1 billion Percent of portfolio: 8.3%Analysts, hedge funds and even Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett are big fans of Amazon.com (AMZN, $2,957.97). But few billionaires gave the e-commerce colossus as big a vote of confidence as Stephen Mandel during the fourth quarter.
Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital hedge fund ($36.4 billion AUM) increased its AMZN stake by 70%, or 256,209 shares, in the final three months of 2021, bringing its total position up to 617,321 shares. The stake was worth $2.1 billion as of Q4’s end, making it Lone Pine’s single largest investment.
Mandel, with an estimated net worth of $3.9 billion, initiated the stake in the fourth quarter of 2017. It was a shrewd bet. AMZN stock has more than doubled since the end of 2017, beating the S&P 500 by about 70 percentage points.
Last year, however, wasn’t so kind to Amazon shareholders. While the broader market booked one of its best years ever, AMZN stock gained just 2.4%. The lackluster showing was partly just the flip side of 2020’s pandemic-fueled breakout for shares. Tough year-over-year comparisons on the top and bottom lines likewise didn’t help.
Either way, Mandel appears to have taken Amazon stock’s relative underperformance last year as an opportunity to get one of Wall Street’s favorite darlings at a discount.
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9. QorvoGetty Images
Billionaire investor: Seth Klarman (Baupost Group)Stake size: $929.9 million Percent of portfolio: 9.2%Qorvo (QRVO, $131.75) makes chips and integrated modules that enable wireless and wired connectivity. It’s a bet on the boom in everything from smart home and auto connections, the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G expansion in general.
Seth Klarman built his estimated net worth of $1.5 billion in part by being early to these sorts of megatrends, and so bulls will certainly be pleased with his latest moves in Qorvo stock.
Klarman’s Baupost Group ($32.0 billion AUM) upped its stake by 16%, or 861,278 shares, in Q4. The Boston hedge fund now holds 5.9 million shares worth $929.9 million as of Dec. 31. At 9.2% of the portfolio, QRVO is second among Klarman’s stock picks after Liberty Global Class C (LBTYK), which accounts for nearly 15% of the fund.
Baupost has owned a stake in Qorvo since the first quarter of 2017, and it’s been a market-beater for most of that time. But shares entered a downtrend in the second half of 2021, and they have yet to find solid ground. Indeed, QRVO is off almost 30% over the past six months, lagging the broader market by about 25 percentage points.
If nothing else, Klarman gave QRVO stock a vote of confidence with his latest purchases – and picked it up at a discount, to boot.
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8. Canadian Pacific RailwayGetty Images
Billionaire investor: John Armitage (Egerton Capital)Stake size: $2.1 billion Percent of portfolio: 9.8%Egerton Capital co-founder and chief investment officer John Armitage has long been a believer in Canadian Pacific Railway (CP, $74.15). His London hedge fund ($27.4 billion AUM) initiated a stake in the sprawling transportation services company back in the third quarter of 2016.
CP has generated a total return (price plus dividends) of about 150% ever since, or more than 25 percentage points better than the S&P 500’s total return over the same span. Those sort of market-beating stock picks help explain how Armitage amassed his estimated net worth of $2.9 billion.
The hedge fund billionaire continued to be bullish on CP – and the sort of global macroeconomic exposure it affords – in Q4, topping off Egerton’s stake by 1%, or 424,443 shares.
The fund held 29.2 million shares in total, worth $2.1 billion as of Dec. 31. At 9.8% of the portfolio, CP is Armitage’s second largest stock pick after Google parent Alphabet Class C (GOOG).
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sent commodities prices soaring. That, in turn, could be a boon for shares in the companies that transport them. Canada is already one of the world’s top exporters of wheat, after all. And shares in CP are up in an otherwise down market so far in 2022.
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7. VisaGetty Images
Billionaire investor: Chris Hohn (TCI Fund Management)Stake size: $5.0 billionPercent of portfolio: 11.3%Chris Hohn took the opportunity to buy one of Wall Street’s favorite stocks at a discount in Q4, upping his hedge fund’s stake in Visa (V, $207.23) by 15%, or 3.2 million shares.
Hohn, with an estimated net worth of $7.9 billion, made his fortune with The Children’s Investment Fund Management. More commonly known as TCI Fund Management, the London hedge fund boasts more than $44 billion in managed securities.
TCI held 23.1 million shares in Visa worth $5 billion as of Q4’s end, making it the fourth largest position. And it’s easy to understand why Hohn pounced. Visa is one of industry analysts’ highest rated stocks. It routinely ranks highly on the list of hedge funds’ top blue-chip stocks to buy, and Warren Buffett is a big fan too.
Alas, the emergence of the delta and omicron variants of the COVID-19 virus have been a damper on shares. The pandemic has hurt spending categories such as travel and leisure and continues to cloud the outlook on cross-border spending.
Visa stock, despite being so widely beloved, is off about 4% over the past year, vs. a gain of more than 12% for the broader market.
This looks like another case of a billionaire looking to buy a great stock at a good price.
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6. IncyteGetty Images
Billionaire investor: Felix and Julian Baker (Baker Bros. Advisors)Stake size: $2.4 billionPercent of portfolio: 11.8%Billionaire biotech investors Julian and Felix Baker might keep a low profile, but they’re plenty famous in the biopharmaceutical sector. A series of successful investments have allowed them to amass a combined fortune of nearly $4 billion.
The brothers, via their New York-based hedge fund Baker Bros. Advisors ($35.8 billion AUM), just gave investors in Incyte (INCY, $69.46) a reason to rejoice. Baker Bros. Advisors upped its stake in the biotech stock by 4%, or 1.6 million shares, in Q4.
Incyte’s lead drug, Jakafi, treats two types of rare blood cancer. Other marketed treatments include Olumiant for rheumatoid arthritis, as well as oncology drugs Iclusig for leukemia and Pemazyre for bile duct cancer.
INCY lost more than 16% in 2021, hurt by the fact that it doesn’t consistently hit earnings targets. Indeed, shares were such a disappointment last year that BofA Securities identified it as a tax-loss harvesting candidate.
Rather than harvest Incyte for tax purposes, the Bakers scooped up a beaten-down stock they clearly very much believe in. Indeed, INCY is No. 3 among their top stock picks, at 11.8% of the fund.
But here’s the true proof of their commitment. Baker Bros. is Incyte’s largest shareholder, with 16.3% of the company’s shares outstanding.
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5. ValarisGetty Images
Billionaire investor: Steven Tananbaum (Goldentree Asset Management)Stake size: $266.6 million Percent of portfolio: 11.6%Steven Tananbaum, founder of Goldentree Asset Management ($40.5 billion AUM), is best known for investing in distressed debt. Case in point: Oil and gas driller Valaris (VAL, $44.54). The company emerged from bankruptcy in the second quarter of 2021 with Goldentree as a major shareholder.
The relentless rise in energy prices has paid off handsomely for Tananbaum, who has an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion. VAL stock is up by roughly 90% since returning to the public market, vs. a gain of less than 4% for the S&P 500.
Not content to sit still amid energy sector outperformance, Tananbaum upped Goldentree’s stake in VAL by 2% in Q4. The fund owned a total of 7.4 million shares in Valaris worth $266.6 million as of Dec. 31. At 11.6% of the portfolio, VAL is the hedge fund’s second largest position.
The VAL holding has more than proved its worth in the early months of 2022, as well. Shares are up 24% for the year-to-date, beating the broader market by more than 30 percentage points.
VAL still carries a heavy debt load, but bulls are betting that rising energy prices will easily keep the reorganized company afloat – and then some. The five analysts who cover the stock give it a consensus recommendation of Strong Buy, per S&P Global Market Intelligence.
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4. ExpediaGetty Images
Billionaire investor: Daniel Sundheim (D1 Capital Partners)Stake size: $2.3 billionPercent of portfolio: 13.8%Online travel shopping site Expedia (EXPE, $185.25) has been one of investors’ favorite ways to play the pandemic recovery trade. But as with any such bet, timing is everything.
And Daniel Sundheim, with an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion, has good timing. His D1 Capital Partners hedge fund ($34.0 billion AUM) initiated a stake in Expedia during the second quarter of 2020, right around the time EXPE stock was hitting its COVID-19 bear market low.
Shares in EXPE are up more than 260% since that pandemic nadir, outperforming the S&P 500 by 170 percentage points. But Sundheim apparently thinks they have more to give.
D1 Capital Partners increased its stake in Expedia by 10%, or 1.2 million shares, during the fourth quarter. The hedge fund owned a total of 12.7 million shares worth $2.3 billion as of Dec. 31. At nearly 14% of the portfolio, EXPE is D1’s top stock pick by a significant margin.
And as rough as 2022 has been so far for equity investors, EXPE has done well by the billionaire. Shares are up 2.5%, leading the broader market by about 10 percentage points. Be aware that they have, however, plummeted more than 13% since hitting a 52-week closing high on Feb. 16, undone by war in Europe and a punishing rise in energy prices.
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3. PfizerGetty Images
Billionaire investor: Andrew Law (Caxton Associates) Stake size: $141.2 million Percent of portfolio: 14.4%Bruce Kovner, with an estimated net worth of $6.2 billion, retired from the hedge fund he founded a decade ago. But Caxton Associates still benefits from its close association with his legendary name.
Meanwhile, Kovner’s successor Andrew Law is hardly a pauper himself. His own net worth is estimated at around $1 billion, thanks to his major ownership stake in Caxton ($25.7 billion AUM).
The rich get richer in part by anticipating changes in market sentiment, which would help explain Caxton Associates greatly increasing its stake in Pfizer (PFE, $47.83) during the fourth quarter. The new year brought a regime change in which investors tossed aside pricey growth stocks in favor of value stocks – a category in which the pharmaceutical giant comfortably resides.
PFE, with its comparatively generous dividend yield of 3.6%, trades at just 6.7 times analysts’ 2022 earnings per share estimate. That represents a discount of almost 50% to its own five-year average, according to data from Refinitiv Stock Reports Plus.
Caxton Associates exploited that value proposition by upping its Pfizer stake by 61%, or 910,417 shares, in the final three months of 2021. The hedge fund held 2.4 million shares in Pfizer worth $141.2 million as of Q4’s end. At 14.4% of the portfolio, PFE is tops among the the fund’s stock picks by a wide margin.
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2. Rivian AutomotiveGetty Images
Billionaire investor: George Soros (Soros Fund Management)Stake size: $2.1 billionPercent of portfolio: 28.1%George Soros, with an estimated net worth of $8.6 billion, is best known for his infamous 1992 bet against the British pound, which reportedly reaped him a profit of $1 billion. Today, the former hedge fund tycoon conducts his investments through Soros Fund Management, a family office (essentially a private hedge fund).
Soros Fund Management, with $7.3 billion in managed securities, made a big new bet on Wall Street darling Rivian Automotive (RIVN, $50.91) in Q4. The family office initiated a position of 19.8 million shares in the manufacturer of electric sport utility vehicles, which executed an initial public offering (IPO) at $78 per share in November 2021.
Soros paid an estimated price of $103.69 per share. And the holding, valued at $2 billion as of Dec. 31, accounted for a whopping 28.1% of the fund’s portfolio.
Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much to like about this outsized Soros bet.
Rivian’s initial public offering valued the start-up at $86 billion, and in less than a week the company attained a market value of more than $150 billion. For context, General Motors (GM) and Ford (F) were worth $91 billion and $79 billion, respectively, at Rivian’s peak.
But the good times sure didn’t last long. Shares in Rivian are off 70% from their Nov. 16 closing peak. The EV company’s market cap now sits $20 billion to $25 billion below that of its venerable peers.
Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but it seems even canny billionaires are subject to irrational exuberance from time to time.
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1. Hertz Global HoldingsGetty Images
Billionaire investor: Brian Higgins (King Street Capital Management)Stake size: $327.4 million Percent of portfolio: 28.3%Car rental company Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ, $19.91) officially emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October, and Brian Higgins was there for it.
The co-founder of King Street Capital Management ($21.9 billion AUM) initiated a stake of 13.1 million shares in the formerly debt-bloated firm. It’s the sort of opportunistic move that has helped Higgins amass an estimated net worth of $1.8 billion, but it remains to be seen how it plays out.
King Street’s position, worth $327.4 million as of Q4’s end, accounted for a massive 28.3% of its portfolio, making it the fund’s top stock pick by a mile. Indeed, T-Mobile US (TMUS), Higgins’ second largest bet, came to just 7.8% of the portfolio value.
Hertz is a pandemic recovery play, but it hasn’t gone particularly well so far. To be fair, how many investors, in the final three months of 2021, forecast gas prices to fly past $4 a gallon in the new year?
HTZ is off by more than a fifth for the year-to-date, lagging the broader market by more than 10 percentage points. Wall Street gives the stock a consensus recommendation of Buy, albeit with middling conviction. Of the eight analysts covering HTZ tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence, three rate it at Strong Buy, two say Buy and three call it a Hold.