Citibank "counter-trend" reduces holdings in tech giants: Q1 bearish on S&P 500 index, only favoring Meta among the seven giants

According to the disclosure from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Wells Fargo (WFC.US) submitted its first-quarter (Q1) holdings report (13F) up to March 31, 2024.

Statistics show that Wells Fargo's total market value of holdings in the first quarter reached $415 billion, compared to $383 billion in the previous quarter, representing an 8.4% increase. In the first quarter, Wells Fargo added 382 individual stocks to its portfolio and increased holdings in 4,133 individual stocks. At the same time, Wells Fargo reduced holdings in 2,269 individual stocks and cleared out 495 individual stocks. The top ten holdings accounted for 19.01% of the total market value.

Among the top five major holdings, Microsoft (MSFT.US) still ranks first, holding approximately 34.56 million shares with a market value of around $14.54 billion. The number of shares held decreased by 0.70% compared to the previous quarter, accounting for 3.50% of the investment portfolio.

SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF Put Options (SPY.US, PUT) ranked second, holding approximately 25.92 million shares with a market value of around $13.56 billion. The number of shares held increased by 245% compared to the previous quarter, accounting for 3.27% of the investment portfolio.

Apple (AAPL.US) ranked third, holding approximately 58.47 million shares with a market value of around $10.03 billion. The number of shares held decreased by 0.61% compared to the previous quarter, accounting for 2.42% of the investment portfolio.

iShares S&P 500 Index ETF (IVV.US) ranked fourth, holding approximately 15.80 million shares with a market value of around $8.31 billion. The number of shares held decreased by 2.40% compared to the previous quarter, accounting for 2% of the investment portfolio.

Vanguard Mid-Cap ETF (VO.US) ranked fifth, holding approximately 23.60 million shares with a market value of around $5.9 billion. The number of shares held increased by 0.33% compared to the previous quarter, accounting for 1.42% of the investment portfolio.

It is worth noting that Wells Fargo took a bearish view on the S&P 500 Index in the first quarter: significantly reducing holdings in the S&P 500 Index while also substantially increasing holdings in S&P 500 Index Put Options. The number of holdings in SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF Put Options increased by 245% compared to the previous quarter, with the proportion in the investment portfolio increasing by over 2%. Furthermore, Wells Fargo also reduced holdings in major constituents of the S&P 500 Index in the first quarter, including Microsoft (MSFT.US), Nvidia (NVDA.US), Apple (AAPL.US), Google-A (GOOG.US)/Google-C (GOOGL.US), Tesla (TSLA.US), and Accenture (ACN.US) among other major tech stocks Among the stocks that were added to the position, compared to reducing holdings in other tech giants, Fuguo Bank favored Meta (META.US) in the first quarter, with the position increasing by 6.10% from the previous quarter. In addition, Fuguo Bank also mainly increased its positions in Broadcom (AVGO.US) and Automatic Data Processing (ADP.US); these three stocks all achieved good returns in the first quarter, with gains of 38%, 20%, and 8% respectively. On the other hand, Apple, which was reduced, fell by 10% in the first quarter. However, the reduced Nvidia (82%) and Microsoft (12%) both achieved good gains in the first quarter.

In terms of changes in position ratios, the top five buy targets are: SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF Put Options (SPY.US, PUT), Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ.US), Starbucks (SBUX.US), Meta (META.US), and Zoetis (ZTS.US).

The top five sell targets are: Apple (AAPL.US), iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF Put Options (HYG.US, PUT), Invesco QQQ ETF Put Options (QQQ.US, PUT), SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY.US), and Amazon Put Options (AMZN.US, PUT)

In the first quarter, the investment moves of Fuguo Bank seem to be different from other major institutions, such as JP Morgan and Citigroup, which heavily increased their holdings in tech giants in the first quarter. JP Morgan made significant purchases of US tech giants in the first quarter, including stocks of the "Magnificent Seven"; in addition, JP Morgan also notably increased its holdings in tech stocks related to artificial intelligence. Moreover, among Citigroup's top ten major holdings in the first quarter, most were increased by Citigroup, with all of them being large US tech giants.

Furthermore, in the top ten major holdings of the world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, in the first quarter, the focus was mainly on tech giants, with the top five purchases also being tech giants: including Google-C (GOOGL.US), Nvidia (NVDA.US), Apple (AAPL.US), and others. Global asset management giant Schroders also made significant purchases of tech giants such as Microsoft (MSFT.US) and Amazon (AMZN.US) in the first quarter