Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global Portfolio: 5 New Stock Picks

2. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) 

Viking Global’s Stake Value: $1,743,649,000

Percentage of Viking Global’s 13F Portfolio: 4.83%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 53

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) is a multinational American conglomerate operating in four main business segments, including aviation, power, renewable energy, and the digital industry. Viking Global assumed a position in General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) in the third quarter, with almost 17 million shares worth $1.74 billion. The stock accounts for 4.83% of the total Q3 investments of Halvorsen’s hedge fund. 

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) announced on October 26 its earnings for the quarter ending September 30. EPS in the period totaled $0.57, beating estimates by $0.13. The revenue equaled $18.43 billion, down 5.09% year-over-year, missing estimates by $745.06 million. 

Morgan Stanley analyst Joshua Pokrzywinski on November 23 resumed coverage of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) with an Overweight rating and a $125 price target, citing a good risk/reward combination and better catalysts for the company in the coming year. 

Pzena Investment Management is one of the leading General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) stakeholders from Q3 2021, with a position worth over $1 billion in the company. Overall, a total of 53 hedge funds were bullish on General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) at the end of the third quarter, down from 67 funds in the preceding quarter. The total stakes held by hedge funds in Q3 equaled $6.24 billion. 

Here is what Vulcan Value Partners has to say about General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) in its Q3 2021 investor letter:

“During the quarter, we sold our positions in General Electric Co. General Electric is a company we followed for a long time. In the past, we removed GE from the MVP list due to management’s poor capital allocation decisions which resulted in value instability. Larry Culp, the former CEO of Danaher, became CEO of General Electric in 2018. The company implemented a vast restructuring program to simplify the industrial side of its business, sold off non-core assets, paid down debt with the proceeds, and drastically shrunk GE Capital. These restructuring activities allowed its world-class jet engine and healthcare businesses to shine through, and improved value stability. As a result, we added the company back to the MVP list. While the pandemic negatively impacted General Electric’s aviation business in the short run, it also gave us the opportunity to buy General Electric in the second quarter of 2020 with a substantial margin of safety. GE is a good example of a competitively entrenched, yet slower growing MVP business. As its stock price rose rapidly over the last year, its value growth did not keep up, and the price to value gap closed quickly. As our margin of safety diminished, we sold our position in GE and allocated to more discounted companies.”