Can Big Cap Growthies Keep Sweeping The Board?

Investors need to remain aware of the gigantism of Berkshire Hathaway. Apple is a 22 % position but only 1.9% of its capitalization. Meanwhile, American Express is at 19% of its portfolio and 21.6% of market capitalization. 

Bank of America, BRK’s largest position, originally was a deal situation where Buffett bailed them out of near disaster in the financial meltdown over 20 years ago.  

Elsewhere, has the Soros Fund lost its way? It declined 4% for the second quarter with almost total turnover of holdings. The portfolio is pretty diversified. I recognize only a few positions like Nvidia, Amazon and Salesforce . Amazon seems to keep popping up, widely held. 

The second quarter was  abnormally busy in  Berkshire’s Portfolio. Over a 40% turnover with the static ratio at 58.5%. Most notable, Apple saw a slight decrease in holdings. 

When I turn to Iridian Asset Management, I see a big fund with nearly total turnover, quarterly. It’s a big world but, I recognized only a couple of portfolio names. The fund lost around 10% of assets in the second quarter. Can you go on like this and still attract capital? 

Turning to Renaissance Technologies, a sizable $75 billion, I saw stylistic continuation of total quarterly asset turnover. They hold few mega Cap stocks. Ford and Apple comprise just 1% of their portfolio. Palatin Technology, their top position, rests at  2.4% of assets. 

When I turned to Tiger Asset Management, I saw a horse of a different color. This is now a $34 billion fund with a static ratio of 36%. Here you are buying big tech. Meta Platforms is 16% of assets, followed by Microsoft at 9.5% with plenty of Amazon, Alphabet and Nvidia. Why not just buy a big position in the NASDAQ Index? Apple is conspicuously absent. I find half of Tiger’s assets readily familiar, but not the other half. What is Flutter and Veeva Systems? Am I showing my age? Gimme the NASDAQ Index, and I’ll be adequately covered. 

If  you want an energy play, go with Carl Icahn’s fund, largely energy. This is a $75 billion asset base where there's minimal stock turnover. Could be more productive than buying a large position in Exxon Mobil or following Buffett into Occidental Petroleum. 

I’ve much respect for T. Rowe Price Associates. This huge beast with some $900 billion under management has put nearly 30% of capital in 5 stocks: Microsoft is numero uno, a 7% position, followed by Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Broadcom and Netflix. Such stocks comprise over 36% of assets managed. Microsoft and Nvidia, alone, 15 % of assets. Courage is hardly ever mentioned for a money management trait.  These guys got it in spades. 

At the other end of the spectrum is Omega Advisors, now a $2.8 billion operator. Is Lee Cooperman still running the show? I hardly recognize any of their special situations here. Investment style remains special situations deeply researched. I do recognize Energy Transfer, a solid MLP. My money is on Enterprise Products Partners, a pipeline MLP yielding over 6.5%. After all, you can’t place all your capital in Amazon and its ilk. On second thought, maybe you can., Luck and Pesetas guys!

Pershing Square Capital has held on to Chipotle despite its negative earnings surprise. Otherwise, they had a great quarter and sold out zero. Amazon here is 9% of assets, exceeded only by Uber Technological, Brookfield and Restaurant Brand. So Pershing Square is nearly a complete non-durables play. Pretty singular. They made serious money in the second quarter despite the upset in Chipotle. This is a serious house that deserves serious investors. 

What don’t I see in these sizable portfolios? Well, there’s plenty of Amazon but not Microsoft. The financial services sector is underplayed as are basic industrials 

like Ford, Deere, General Motors and General Electric. Very little pharma held and even Apple is underrepresented. 

In summary, can a handful of Tesla like stocks prevail? I’m talking Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Nvidia. For the strong of heart,  concentration in prime growth stocks made for a great quarter.