We recently published an article titled Top 12 Stocks to Buy According to Citadel Investment Group. In this article, we are going to take a look at where The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) stands against the other stocks.
Citadel Investment Group was officially founded by Ken Griffin on November 1, 1990, with $4.2 million in assets under management. By the end of 2013, the fund had expanded to $16 billion, a remarkable growth driven by a combination of advanced computer algorithms, complex financial models, and a highly secretive approach in its initial years. Griffin was an early adopter of quantitative, technology-driven investment strategies, implementing sophisticated methods long before many firms had even integrated basic digital tools. His reliance on cutting-edge technology and data-driven decision-making positioned Citadel as a leader in the hedge fund industry, setting it apart from traditional investment firms. As of Q4 2024, it holds approximately $577.87 billion in 13F securities in its highly diversified portfolio.
Known more commonly as Ken Griffin, Kenneth Cordele Griffin was born in 1968. His interest in finance began early, and while still a student, he started investing from his Harvard dorm room. In 1986, he launched a small hedge fund that leveraged emerging quantitative analytics to guide investment decisions. A year after he earned a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Economics from Harvard College in 1989, Griffin founded Citadel, which has since become one of the world’s most successful alternative investment firms. In addition to leading Citadel, Griffin serves as the Founder and Non-Executive Chairman of Citadel Securities, a major global market maker.
Citadel was built on the principle that exceptional talent, combined with advanced quantitative analytics and powerful technology, could unlock significant opportunities in capital markets. The firm’s culture emphasizes continuous learning, innovation, and meritocracy, earning it a reputation as one of the best places to work on Wall Street. Today, Citadel manages over $60 billion in investment capital, consistently ranking among the most profitable hedge funds worldwide. Its success has benefited a range of institutional investors, including pension funds, university endowments, hospital systems, and foundations, contributing to impactful advancements in fields such as medical research and scientific discovery.
Citadel Investment Group employs a diverse range of investment strategies, with a strong focus on fixed income, macro, and quantitative trading. Its fixed income and macro strategy, one of the firm’s longest-running approaches, targets interest rate swaps, sovereign bonds, inflation, currencies, emerging markets, equities, commodities, and credit. By leveraging macro and relative value strategies, the firm integrates quantitative modeling, deep macroeconomic insights, and monetary policy expertise to identify opportunities. The research and trading teams work collaboratively, applying both qualitative and quantitative analysis to generate and refine investment ideas.
Additionally, Citadel’s Global Quantitative Strategies (GQS), established in 2012, has rapidly grown into a major force in the industry. Utilizing advanced statistical and quantitative modeling techniques, its agile teams of researchers, engineers, and traders develop and execute investment strategies with precision. Specialization, collaboration, and centralized operations drive efficiency, allowing the firm to run complex strategies at scale. By combining cutting-edge technology with deep expertise, Citadel continues to expand its capabilities and strengthen its competitive position in global markets.
Beyond finance, Griffin has made a profound impact through philanthropy, donating over $2 billion to education, healthcare, and social initiatives. His philanthropic efforts, now coordinated through Griffin Catalyst, have expanded educational access, strengthened medical and research institutions, and supported cultural organizations. His strategic insights also played a key role in the development of Operation Warp Speed, accelerating COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Whether in business or philanthropy, Griffin’s commitment to data-driven decision-making and transformative impact remains a defining characteristic of his career.
Our Methodology
The stocks discussed below were picked from Citadel Investment Group’s Q4 2024 13F filings. They are compiled in the ascending order of the hedge fund’s stake in them as of December 31, 2024. To assist readers with more context, we have included the hedge fund sentiment regarding each stock using data from 1,009 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Why are we interested in 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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A commercial jetliner parked at an airport, reflecting the companies success in aviation.
The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders as of Q4: 103
Citadel Investment Group’s Equity Stake: $977.31 Million
An American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide, The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) announced its Q4 2024 revenue on January 28, 2025. Boeing reported $15.2 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, with a per-share loss of ($5.46), largely due to the impact of the IAM work stoppage, defense program charges, and costs from previously announced workforce reductions. The company also recorded an operating cash outflow of ($3.5) billion. Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg emphasized that while progress was made in stabilizing operations and enhancing safety and quality measures, the company remains committed to implementing fundamental changes to improve performance and rebuild trust with stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers, investors, and regulators.
The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA)’s shares dropped 6.6% on March 4, 2025, highlighting how trade tensions are affecting not just major importers but also the nation’s largest exporter. In 2024, the U.S. maintained a trade surplus of approximately $100 billion from aircraft exports, with Boeing playing a significant role. While the company manufactures jets, bombers, and satellites exclusively in the U.S., it remains vulnerable to rising costs of raw materials like aluminum due to its extensive global supply chain, which includes a composite parts facility in Winnipeg, Canada. CEO Kelly Ortberg has acknowledged that tariffs in China could impact sales in that market. However, The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) benefits from its position as one of only two major suppliers of commercial jetliners, alongside Airbus, at a time when demand for aircraft remains high.
By the end of Q4 2024, Citadel Investment Group increased its stake in The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) by an immense margin, from the 233,785 shares it held in Q3 to over 5.5 million shares in Q4. Accordingly, Citadel’s stake in Boeing increased to $977.31 million from $35.54 million in the previous quarter. This signified an increase of 2262% and effectively made Boeing the second-largest holding in Griffin’s portfolio. The company is now second on the list of top stocks to buy according to Citadel Investment Group.
Sound Shore Management stated the following regarding The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA): A detractor for the period was global aerospace leader Boeing. We were able to purchase the stock at a prospective 10% free cash flow yield on a normalized scenario. Over the past couple of years the stock rebounded from operational challenges and had surged on improved free cash generation from increasing order activity, driven by global demand for aircraft. It was one of our best performers in the fourth quarter of 2023 after its November plane deliveries increased. When additional manufacturing issues surfaced in January 2024, we believed it would push restructuring efforts back enough to warrant a review by our team. Reacting quickly, we sold our position at a gain in the first quarter, albeit less than before the news.”
Overall BA ranks 2nd on our list of the top stocks to buy according to Citadel Investment Group. While we acknowledge the potential for BA as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than BA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stock To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
