We recently published a list of Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller’s Top 10 Stock Picks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) stands against other stock picks of Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller.
Druckenmiller on the Fed’s Actions
On November 6, billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller appeared in a podcast, In Good Company, hosted by Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management. Druckenmiller shared his opinion on the easing cycle and the role of the Fed in the current economic backdrop. He shared that he is primarily keeping a close look at companies and is not seeing any signs of weakness, other than the housing market, that too because of elevated price levels. He also added that for the next 3 to 6 months, he does not expect any economic problems to overshadow the market.
Druckenmiller emphasized that the financial conditions are of more interest to him and that they have been very “loose, looser than they were when the Fed actually started tightening.” He is also particularly interested to see if the market is currently in the “70s rally since 2021” when the inflationary period started, expressing his concerns over inflation moving forward. In addition to inflationary concerns, Druckenmiller is also worried that the Fed had declared victory a tad bit early, lacking confidence in the current market backdrop.
He believes that with a 50 basis point cut, roaring equities, and no material weakness, the market may turn up again. Druckenmiller added that the Fed is “obsessed” with a soft landing and emphasized that “fine-tuning” and “worrying about a soft landing” is not their job. The reason why there is an urgency for a soft landing is because the Fed let the inflation rate jump in the first place, he added. Speaking of the Fed’s actions and forward guidance, Druckenmiller highlighted that the Fed believes that if it changes its due course of action, it may lose credibility, leaving its hands tied.
Stanley Druckenmiller is an American billionaire, investor, and founder of Duquesne Capital, with a net worth of $6.9 billion, as of December 14, 2024. Druckenmiller has made a fortune as a hedge fund manager for 30 big years and now manages money from his family office. He also worked with George Soros until 2000, a renowned investor known for shorting the pound in 1992. He also shares interesting opinions on the money market and the economy. In Q3 2024, Druckenmiller initiated 33 new positions, ending the quarter with a portfolio of $2.95 billion in 13F securities. With that, let’s discuss his top stock picks as of Q3 2024.
Our Methodology
We scanned Duquesne Capital’s Q3 2024 portfolio and picked the fund’s top 13F holdings. Additionally, we’ve also added overall hedge fund sentiment for each stock, as of Q3 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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A technician configuring a network-attached storage drive.
Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX)
Duquesne Capital’s Stake Value: $179,670,000
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 46
Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) ranks fifth on our list of the top stock picks by Stanley Druckenmiller, as of Q3 2024 according to our Insider Monkey database. The technology company specializes in the provision of mass-capacity data storage services. In the past four decades, Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) has delivered over four billion terabytes of capacity which positions it as a leader in the industry.
At the moment, the company is present in 30 countries with customers from across the globe, becoming a primary connecting force between people, businesses, and ideas. Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) is working tirelessly to increase cloud customers for HAMR-based Mozaic productions, ramp up near-line drives, and build momentum to meet the growing customer demand, which explains why 46 hedge funds were bullish on the stock at the end of the third quarter of 2024.
In addition to a strong global presence, Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) is also performing remarkably on the financial front. In the fiscal first quarter, the company generated $2.17 billion in revenue, up from $1.35 billion in the fiscal first quarter of 2024. In addition to that, the company pulled itself out of a net loss in FQ1 2024, generating $305 million in net income in FQ1 2025. Moreover, Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) generated $95 million in cash flow from operations, $27 million in free cash flow, and returned nearly $147 million to shareholders through dividends.
Overall, STX ranks 5th on our list of Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller’s stock picks. While we acknowledge the potential of STX to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that certain 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 STX but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
