In this piece, we will take a look at the ten stocks that billionaire David Tepper just bought and sold. If you want to skip our overview of David Tepper, his hedge fund, and the latest stock market news, then take a look at 5 Stocks Billionaire David Tepper Just Bought and Sold.
David Tepper is one of the most well known hedge fund bosses in the industry. He founded the hedge fund Appaloosa Management in 1993, and since then has risen to become one of the richest people in the world. Mr. Tepper’s hedge fund is a global investment firm that initially started out by investing in distressed securities called junk bonds. Investing in junk bonds is a risky endeavor, and while it promises high returns, the issuing entity’s financial situation is often in peril. So, if this situation improves, then the bonds can appreciate in value, but if it soars, the entire investment might be unsalvageable.
During his hedge fund career, Mr. Tepper also has had the distinction of earning one of the highest amounts in a calendar year. These days, he has diversified his interests and owns several sports teams. And while his sports endeavors are all that the media can talk about these days, Appaloosa Management has been quietly humming like a well oiled machine on the sidelines. Mr. Tepper’s hedge fund’s investment portfolio was worth $5 billion as of Q3 2023, to mark for a small $300 million drop over the second quarter and a sizeable $3.3 billion gain over the third quarter of 2022. While hedge fund portfolios can appreciate in value through the investors adding in more investments, their value can also change in response to market events.
Considering the stock market performance during 2023, it’s unsurprising that David Tepper’s investment portfolio has grown significantly over the course of the past twelve months. This is because while Appaloosa Management focused on junk bonds in its early days, now, some of its biggest investments are in the technology sector. Digging through the firm’s third quarter of 2023 SEC filings revealed that its five biggest shareholdings were in the stocks of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). Cumulatively, Appaloosa Management’s third quarter investments in the five mega cap technology giants were worth roughly $2.4 billion to account for close to half of its investment portfolio. Over the course of the past twelve months, the shares of these five companies have appreciated by 199%, 53%, 51.9%, 215%, and 37.5%, respectively.
However, share price appreciation might not be the sole reason why Appaloosa and David Tepper’s latest investment portfolio is worth a lot more today than it was a year back. To conclusively determine whether this is the case, we’ll have to dig deeper into the firm’s recent investment history. Starting from Meta, the hedge fund had owned 875,000 shares of the company in Q3 2022. as of this year’s third quarter, it has increased the number of shares to 1.9 million after slowly building the position starting January. This trend also holds for Appaloosa Management’s Microsoft and Google investments, and NVIDIA stands out from the rest since David Tepper only started buying its shares during the first quarter of 2023 only to rapidly grow its stake from holding 150,000 shares back then to a much more sizeable 1 million shares as of September 2023.
Shifting gears to focus on the stock market environment, November 2023 appears to be the dawn of a new era. This is because multiple economic indicators appear to be pointing at the end of the Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate hiking cycle to spur hopes that the central bank might even start reducing them soon. The flagship S&P 500 index has gained 9% since late October, and U.S. equity funds seem to be roaring back to life. Data from LSEG shows that during the week ending on November 5th, $9.3 billion flowed into equity funds after inflation data hinted that the Fed might be heading toward a pause. At the same time, treasury yields have come down from their record high levels, and overall, the market appears to be stabilizing.
Yet, at the same time, warning signs of a U.S. economic slowdown are also in play. Not only has inflation reduced, but unemployment is also rising and manufacturing appears to be slowing down. This slowdown was also evident to the management of the mega retailer Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT), whose management shared in a recent earnings call:
We’re in a period of time 12 months after the Fed has begun raising rates. We’ve seen consumer balance sheets that are getting back close to pre-pandemic levels. You’ve got the repayment of student loans, which affects about 27 million Americans. So all of these things could be contributing. I do want to point out, John talked about the impact of weather can have on our business. I’m learning that that can have profound effects in consumer shopping patterns. And we saw anomalous weather in the back half of October. So there is a number of different reasons, we can’t put our finger on is exactly.
And so that’s why we take a little bit more of a cautious stance as we go into the fourth quarter, calling out perhaps more variability because there are some trends that have been different than what we saw the first 11 weeks of the quarter. Not to be alarmist, so I think our business is still performing really well. That’s why we called out what we’ve seen thus far in November. In particular, the events that we’ve had. Walmart U.S., some of the more festive events internationally, we’ve seen strong response from our customers. But that this is — this was — the trend we saw in the back half of October was different than anything else we’ve seen this year. And so we simply want to call that out.
So, what is smart money thinking as the economic winds start to shift? We took a look at some stocks that David Tepper is buying and selling, and some top names in this list are Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META), and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN).
Our Methodology
To compile our list of the stocks that David Tepper is buying and selling, we took a look at Appaloosa Management’s latest filings with the SEC and ranked the stocks the fund has bought by their latest dollar value. Then, a second list of the stocks that were sold was made and it was ranked on the basis of the total dollar value after or before the sale. Out of both these lists, the top ten stocks, i.e. those with the highest stakes and those with the highest disposals were chosen as the stocks that David Tepper is buying and selling.
10 Stocks Billionaire David Tepper Just Bought and Sold
10. QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM)
Appaloosa Management’s Q3 2023 Investment: $144 million
Bought Or Sold: Sold
Percentage Increase or (-)Decrease: -30%
QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) is a semiconductor company that designs processors, modems, and associated products. Appaloosa Management reduced its stake in the company by 30% during Q3 2023 and owned $144 million shares as of September end.
During the previous quarter, 73 out of the 910 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey’s database had bought QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM)’s quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors was the biggest shareholder in the third quarter due to its $362 million stake.
Along with Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) is a top stock that saw some action in David Tepper’s third quarter investment portfolio.
9. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)
Appaloosa Management’s Q3 2023 Investment: $222 million
Bought Or Sold: Sold
Percentage Increase or (-)Decrease: -8%
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is a semiconductor manufacturer and designer, which makes its own chips. Appaloosa Management reduced its stake in the company by 8% during Q3 2023. While there have been lingering concerns about Intel’s ability to catch up to rivals in the contract manufacturing and AI space, the shares won some respite in November after Mizuho upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral and increased its share price target to $50 from $37.
As of Q2 2023 end, 71 out of the 910 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey’s database had held a stake in the company. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)’s largest hedge fund investor in the following quarter was William B. Gray’s Orbis Investment Management through its $468 million investment.
8. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD)
Appaloosa Management’s Q3 2023 Investment: $233 million
Bought Or Sold: Sold
Percentage Increase or (-)Decrease: -2%
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) is another semiconductor company. The firm has beaten analyst EPS estimates in all four of its latest quarters and the shares are rated Buy on average.
By the end of this year’s second quarter,112 out of the 910 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey had invested in Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD). During the third quarter, its biggest stakeholder in our database was Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management as it owned 27.7 million shares that are worth $2.8 billion.
7. Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA)
Appaloosa Management’s Q3 2023 Investment: $312 million
Bought Or Sold: Sold
Percentage Increase or (-)Decrease: -20%
Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) is a Chinese technology conglomerate. David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management reduced its stake in the firm by a strong 20% during this year’s third quarter. However, the shares are rated Strong Buy on average and analysts have set an average share price target of $133.
During Q2 2023, 112 out of the 910 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey’s database were the firm’s shareholders. Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA)’s largest investor during Q3 was Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management as it owned $334 million worth of shares.
6. Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:UBER)
Appaloosa Management’s Q3 2023 Investment: $333 million
Bought Or Sold: Bought
Percentage Increase or (-)Decrease: 2%
Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:UBER) is a software company with ridesharing, delivery, and other platforms. These days, the firm is busy upgrading its platform for driver security, by requiring riders to verify themselves in a bid to reduce carjackings.
As of June 2023 end, 144 among the 910 hedge funds researched by Insider Monkey had invested in Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:UBER). During Q3, the biggest shareholder was Brad Gerstner’s Altimeter Capital Management via its $613 million stake.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:UBER), Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META), and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) are some stocks David Tepper bought during Q3 2023.
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Disclosure: None. 10 Stocks Billionaire David Tepper Just Bought and Sold is originally published on Insider Monkey.
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