Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates has submitted its 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing its U.S-traded equity holdings (or lack thereof in certain stocks in this case) as of June 30. Overall, there was a noticeable drop in the value of Dalio’s 13F portfolio, to $10.83 billion, down from $12.83 billion at the end of the first quarter. The firm uses a concentrated approach to its investing strategy, with its top ten holdings accounting for 87.94% of its total portfolio value. Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates in 1973 after years of experience and interest in the stock market. In fact, he purchased his first shares at the age of 12 during the early 1960’s. At the moment, he serves the investment management firm as a Mentor, after relinquishing his position as its CEO in 2011. As Bridgewater’s portfolio took a noticeable dip in value, it’s unsurprising that there were a number of positions sold off by the firm, with one being of particular interest, as it was formerly the firm’s second-most valuable long position. We’ll look at the top three positions sold off by Bridgewater during the second quarter, which were Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (USA) (NYSE:POT), Agrium Inc. (USA) (NYSE:AGU), and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA).
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First, let us look at Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (USA) (NYSE:POT), a nitrogen, phosphate, and potash producer headquartered in Canada, in which Bridgewater Associates held a total of 1.22 million shares valued at $39.31 million going into the second quarter, ranking it as the fund’s second top long position in a company after Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) (which remains Dalio’s top pick). Held being the key word in the previous sentence, as the firm ended up selling all of its shares by the end of the quarter. Interestingly, the fund was quite bullish on the stock during the first quarter, having raised its stake in it by 103%. The chemical company is a global leader in the production of potash, currently controlling 20% of the world market. This combined with its joint marketing partnership with other companies like Agrium Inc. (which Dalio also sold out of, as you’ll see) and Mosaic Inc has made it possible for it to control potash prices and have favorable gross margins of over 60% and profit margins of around 40%. The company’s performance in the stock market has not been good this year though, having lost 26.08% year-to-date. At the end of the second quarter, Cardinal Capital, led by Amy Minella, held a total of 1.37 million shares worth $42.38 million. This was after reducing its stake in the stock by 24,950 shares. Pittencrieff Partners – Gabalex Capital, headed by Nigel Greig and Kenneth Cowin, reduced its stake in the company by 100,000 shares to 350,000 shares valued at $10.84 million.
Bridgewater Associates also sold all 200,628 shares that it held in Agrium Inc. (USA) (NYSE:AGU) at the beginning of the second quarter of 2015. The trend witnessed in Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (USA) during the first quarter is more or less the same as Agrium Inc. (USA), since the fund also raised its stake in the stock by 94% during the first quarter, before taking a U-turn. The global producer of agricultural products recently announced an $0.88 dividend payable on October 15 to shareholders of record on September 30. Agrium Inc. (USA) (NYSE:AGU) is one of the fastest growing companies in terms of dividend yield, having grown by an average of 114% over the past five years. This is fundamentally because of the company’s diversified revenue stream. The stock has registered growth of 12.92% over the past year, in addition to the solid dividend. At the end of the second quarter, Cardinal Capital held a total of 467,310 shares valued at $49.59 million, representing 5.39% of its 13F portfolio. Sanford J. Colen‘s Apex Capital held a total of 5,709 shares with a market value of $605,000 at the end of the quarter.
Last but not least, let us have a quick look at NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), a technology company in which Bridgewater Associates held a total of 622,243 shares valued at $13.02 million going into the second quarter of 2015. However, the fund ended up selling all of its shares in the company during the quarter. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) was recently faced with a huge challenge that compelled it to recall 88,000 units of its shield tablet. The company revealed that the tablet can overheat, thus putting users at risk. That aside, the Santa Clara, California-based company is also set to release a new flagship GPU line-up for Notebooks. The GPU is codenamed “N16E-GXX” and is touted as being capable of providing enhanced performance for users. At the end of the second quarter, Winton Capital Management, managed by David Harding, held a total of 2.72 million shares valued at $54.72 million after unloading 583,187 shares during the quarter.
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