In this article, we will look at Billionaire Israel Englander’s Top 10 Stock Picks Heading Into 2025.
Israel Englander has always inspired the investment world by founding and managing the second-most profitable hedge fund in history. The Brooklyn-born billionaire investor began his career on Wall Street in 1970. After gaining valuable experience in trading and investment management, he founded Millennium Management in 1989.
Millennium Management has become one of the world’s largest and most successful hedge funds, managing $210 billion in 13F securities as of Q3 2024. Innovative investment strategies and a focus on risk management are the tenets that have propelled the hedge fund to tremendous success. Since its inception, Englander’s hedge fund has averaged 14% in annual returns, solidifying its position in the highly competitive hedge fund landscape. The hedge fund has also racked up over $56 billion in cumulative profits for investors since its inception.
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Millennium Management had its best year in 2000, when the dot-com bust started, and the S&P 500 was down 10%. Thanks to its multi-strategy approach, it returned 35%, which consistently produces positive returns. As the CEO, Englander only had one down year, a 3% decline at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. The impressive performance stems from the billionaire investor focusing on unique investment strategies emphasizing diversification and risk management. Likewise, Englander advocates for a multi-strategy approach that makes it easy to capitalize on various market opportunities.
Millennium Management’s diversification strategy was highlighted when they sold tech stocks to invest in an index fund, emphasizing long-term growth and risk mitigation. Israel Englander remains focused on expanding the firm and leveraging technology to stay competitive.
In 2023, Israel Englander topped Bloomberg’s list of highest-earning hedge fund managers with $2.8 billion in net earnings. Millennium Management earned $600 million from commodities last year but lagged behind Citadel’s $8 billion in 2022. Bloomberg cited sources saying Millennium’s struggles are due to Englander’s tight control. Financial Times reported Millennium manages $60 billion in assets, employs 5,400 people, and has 17 offices. The fund returned 8.3% in 2023, 12.5% in 2022, 13.6% in 2021, and 25.9% in 2020.
Millennium Management was one of the hedge funds that benefited from the overall stock market rally, with the S&P 500 gaining 24% in 2024 due to optimism around artificial intelligence and interest rate cuts. The hedge fund also benefited from its exposure to many of the ‘Magnificent 7’ stocks, which were behind much of the actions in 2024.
After two straight years of annual gains, the focus in the equity markets is on stocks that can maintain the upward momentum in 2025. Billionaire Israel Englander’s top stock picks are well poised to benefit from a strong US economy. While the billionaire investor’s portfolio consists of tech stocks, it also consists of investment plays in healthcare, industrials and materials sectors. With that, let’s take a look at some of his top stock picks.
Israel Englander of Millennium Management
Our Methodology
We analyzed Millennium Management’s portfolio to make a list of billionaire Israel Englander’s top 10 stock picks heading into 2025. We then settled on Englander’s top ten holdings and analyzed them to determine why they stand out in generating long-term value. We then ranked these companies in ascending order based on the hedge fund’s stake value.
At Insider Monkey, we are obsessed with the stocks that hedge funds pile into. The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
Billionaire Israel Englander’s Top 10 Stock Picks Heading Into 2025
10. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Millennium Management’s Stake Value: $458.07 Million
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 202
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is an internet content and information company that offers products and platforms. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. It is one of billionaire Israel Englander’s top stock picks as it has delivered excellent returns on tripling in value over the past five years. While the stock was up by 40.62% in 2024, it’s well-positioned to generate significant value in 2025.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is heavily investing in AI to boost its search engine and advertising business, enhance YouTube user experience, and attract more ad campaigns. Although it trails Microsoft and Amazon in cloud services, Alphabet aims to close the gap by integrating AI into its cloud offerings. By Q3 2024, all products with over 2 billion monthly users used Gemini models. Alphabet is expanding Gemini to developers on platforms like GitHub Copilot, improving AI in search, adding AI features to new Chromebooks, and launching an AI tool to help consumers choose products.
In Q3, Google’s Cloud revenue was up 35% year over year, much higher than the 33% gain delivered by Microsoft Azure and 19% by Amazon Web Services. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock will benefit more from Google Cloud’s continued expansion as it is beginning to demonstrate robust growth.
Additionally, the company is expanding its footprint into the burgeoning semiconductor sector. It has unveiled Willow, a quantum computing chip capable of performing standard benchmark computation. The new chip strengthens Alphabet’s position in an emerging tech field.
9. Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC)
Millennium Management’s Stake Value: $535.42 Million
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 72
Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC) is a financial services company offering a wide range of banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services. The company has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets. It was one of the best-performing banking stocks, rallying by about 44% in 2024. Likewise, it is one of billionaire Israel Englander’s top stock picks owing to the tremendous opportunities for growth.
In the first nine months of 2024, Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) experienced a 9.6% decline in net interest income, primarily due to a 45% increase in interest expenses. The bank has been diversifying its revenue sources as it seeks to reduce its reliance on net interest income. Consequently, Wells Fargo has been strengthening its corporate investment bank unit in pursuit of new growth opportunities.
Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC) prioritized serving its independent advisers and consumer banking customers, which should eventually spur development. It’s also focused on expanding its treasury management business and offering clients investment banking and market capabilities.
While Wells Fargo has operated under an asset cap imposed by regulators as a penalty over its fake accounts scandal, that cap could be removed soon. The cap has restricted the bank from growing its balance sheet, making it difficult to expand its loan basket and generate interest income.
Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC) CEO Charlie Scharf has done a good job streamlining the bank’s regulatory framework, cutting costs, and concentrating on the bank’s core business. Scharf has also started to enhance higher-returning operations, such as investment banking and credit card lending, that the bank hasn’t fully utilized in the past.