Bridgewater Associates favors technology stocks in Q1! Opening long positions on Amazon and AMD, significantly increasing holdings in the "Seven Sisters of US Tech Stocks"

On Tuesday, May 14th, the world's largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates released its 13F quarterly holdings report. The highlight of its first-quarter holdings was a significant increase in positions in Google, Nvidia, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft, with new long positions in Amazon and AMD, resulting in the highest overweighting in technology stocks.

In the first quarter of 2024 ending on March 31st, Bridgewater disclosed holdings in 677 listed companies with a market value increase of approximately 11% to about $19.8 billion compared to the previous quarter. The concentration of the top ten holdings increased slightly from 31.40% to 31.87%. By the end of March, the hedge fund had 91 clients and managed discretionary assets exceeding $171.7 billion.

Among them, Amazon was Bridgewater's largest new position in the first quarter, buying nearly 1.05 million shares valued at $189 million. The second largest new long position was in chip manufacturer AMD, with nearly 680,000 shares purchased for $123 million.

Bridgewater also initiated positions in medical technology leader Medtronic with 680,000 shares, iShares MSCI South Korea ETF with 870,000 shares, and over 80,000 shares of credit rating leader S&P Global.

During the quarter, Bridgewater significantly increased its holdings in well-known large-cap U.S. technology stocks. Particularly, it increased its stake in Apple by 1.841045 million shares to a total of 1.842154 million shares valued at $316 million, compared to just 1,109 shares at the end of last year.

Additionally, Bridgewater increased its holdings in Google Class A shares by 3.32 million shares to nearly 5.37 million shares valued at over $800 million; increased its Nvidia holdings by 436,000 shares to a total of 705,000 shares valued at $637 million; increased its Microsoft holdings by 382,000 shares to nearly 580,000 shares valued at $2.44 billion, all doubling from the previous quarter. It also increased its Meta Class A shares by 328,000 shares to a total of 994,000 shares valued at $483 million.

This led Google Class A shares, Nvidia, and Meta to rank third, fifth, and sixth respectively in Bridgewater's largest holdings in the first quarter, pushing out positions in Coca-Cola and Costco from the top five, indicating Bridgewater's preference for technology stocks and a waning interest in consumer stocks.

In the fourth quarter of last year, Bridgewater significantly increased its positions in Nvidia and Eli Lilly, both growing by more than four times, seen as being bullish on AI and weight-loss drugs.

This image shows Bridgewater's top ten holdings list for the fourth quarter of 2023.

Meanwhile, after a slight reduction of 25,000 shares, iShares Core S&P 500 ETF remained Bridgewater's largest holding in the first quarter with nearly 2.1 million shares valued at $11 billion, accounting for 5.6% of disclosed assets The second largest holding is still the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF. The fourth largest holding is Procter & Gamble, but it has been continuously reduced for several quarters.

This image shows Bridgewater's top five holdings in the first quarter of 2024.

In the quarter, Bridgewater also significantly reduced its holdings in Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, selling 892,200 shares or one-third of its position, reducing its total holdings to 1.5445 million shares valued at $180 million. It also reduced its holdings in the iShares China Large-Cap ETF by 2.87 million shares, or 70%.

Bridgewater reduced its holdings in Coca-Cola, a favorite of Buffett, by over 1.71 million shares, leaving a remaining position of nearly 6.29 million shares valued at $385 million; and reduced its holdings in Costco, a favorite of Munger, by over 150,000 shares, leaving a remaining position of 530,000 shares valued at $392 million, both reduced by 20%.

Bridgewater also significantly reduced its holdings in networking solutions hardware supplier Cisco by 1.8 million shares, or nearly 94% of its holdings, leaving less than 120,000 shares valued at less than $6 million.

List of Bridgewater's top five buys/sells in the first quarter

In the quarter, Bridgewater saw the largest decrease in the weight of holdings in the consumer staples sector, with the clearance of American agribusiness company Bunge Global SA, one of the world's four major grain traders, and US Foods Holding Corp.

In addition, financial services company Discover Financial sold nearly 160,000 shares valued at $17.8 million, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange CME Group sold nearly 100,000 shares valued at $20.7 million, and the world's largest lithium miner Albemarle sold 110,000 shares valued at $16.3 million, all cleared from their holdings