GuruFocus portfolio data reveals what stocks investors liked at the end of 2023
Summary
- Magnificent Seven stocks and legacy tech companies dominated guru trades during the quarter.
With the latest round of 13F filings released over the past month, investors and market watchers alike are interested in seeing where the major hedge fund managers are finding value opportunities.
Managers with more than $100 million in assets under management are required to disclose their holdings to the SEC each quarter via 13F filings. These filings are due 45 days after the quarter end date. For fourth-quarter 2023, that means managers must disclose all qualifying assets held on Dec. 31, 2023 by Feb. 15, 2024. Qualifying assets include long positions in U.S. equities and ADRs, call/put options and convertible debt securities. Shorts, cash positions, foreign investments and other assets are not included.
Investors can take advantage of these 13F filings to create portfolios from managers that have proven past success. Despite the 45-day delay in reporting, research has shown that investing alongside a single manager or group of managers can outperform the market. The key is to identify the best and most consistent funds to copy.
The statistics in this report are based on our Premium gurus. These gurus are our hand-picked, best-performing value investors that have proven long-term records.
The GuruFocusAggregated Portfolio, a Premium feature based on these managers’ quarterly filings, shows the 10 most broadly held stocks as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2023 included some Magnificent Seven names that were also popular in the previous quarter, such as software giant Microsoft Corp. (MSFT, Financial) and Google parent Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL, Financial).
While these stocks are quite popular overall, they did not all necessarily see the heaviest guru buying activity during the three months ended Dec. 31. According to GuruFocusHot Picks, that honor only goes to a handful of companies, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA, Financial), Elevance Health Inc. (ELV, Financial) and Citigroup Inc. (C, Financial). However, several of these 10 companies also recorded a lot of selling activity over the same period.
Then there are those stocks that were bought by at least two gurus during the quarter, but did not record any sells. GuruFocusConsensus Picks shows these companies included names like John Wiley & Sons Inc. (WLY, Financial) and Orla Mining Ltd. (ORLA, Financial).
On the sell side, GuruFocus Hot Picks found investors were shedding shares of a number of companies as well. While Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI, Financial) and VMware Inc. (VMW, Financial), among several other stocks, are listed, they were not necessarily sold. Rather, these companies were acquired or merged with other companies and, therefore, are recorded as a sale in our database. As such, Rivian Automotive Inc. (RIVN, Financial) actually recorded the largest number of sell transactions for the period.
As for gurus’ investments within individual sectors, the GuruFocusIndustry Trends page shows the heaviest buying occurred in the software industry, driven by the recent craze for artificial intelligence technology. However, several other industries saw good numbers as well.
Beyond the U.S., GuruFocus’Geographic Trends shows other areas of the world where gurus found potential value opportunities.
You can see their overall exposure to different countries in the map below.
During the quarter, a number of well-known gurus were also making large bets ininternational companies by either entering new positions or expanding their existing holdings. For example, Fairfax’s Prem Watsa (Trades, Portfolio) boosted his stake in Canada’s Orla Mining. Spain’s Azvalor also established holdings in Endeavour Mining PLC (TSX:EDV, Financial) (LSE:EDV) and Barrick Gold (GOLD, Financial) for two of its funds.
As for exchange-traded funds, gurus appeared to be loading up on exposure to indexes like the Standard & Poor’s 500.
Even as the market continues to grapple with inflation and rising interest rates, not to mention geopolitical conflicts and an upcoming presidential election that is sure to be contentious, gurus’ trading activity proves there are plenty of investment opportunities available in the current environment.
Disclosures
I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.