TCI Fund Management fully unloaded a large stake in Microsoft in the third quarter.
The London-based hedge fund giant, headed by Chris Hohn, sold all of its more than 11.8 million shares of the cloud computing and software juggernaut, according to its third-quarter 13F regulatory filing. Microsoft was TCI’s fifth-largest U.S.-listed long among just ten U.S.-listed holdings at the end of the second quarter.
This was a huge move given that Microsoft was the most popular stock among hedge funds in the second quarter, held by at least 409 firms, according to SEI Novus. No other prominent hedge fund firm appears to have liquidated its stake in the company in the third quarter, per an analysis of third-quarter 13F filings, most of which were made public on Tuesday. A number of lesser-known firms, however, did sell off their very small Microsoft stakes this past quarter.
TCI’s liquidation of Microsoft was just one of a number of notable disclosures among hedge funds in the latest round of the required quarterly filings.
For example, Whale Rock Capital Management fully unloaded one of its major holdings: streaming giant Netflix, which was its fourth-largest U.S.-listed common stock long position at the end of June. It also reduced its stake in high-flying chip giant Nvidia — its third-largest long — by roughly 20 percent. At the same time, it more than quadrupled its stake in the Class A shares of Google parent Alphabet, now Whale Rock’s seventh-largest long.
Appaloosa Management increased its stake in the Class C shares of Alphabet by 19 percent. The search giant is now the hedge fund’s fifth-largest U.S. long. In fact, the firm boosted its positions in four of its five largest holdings, all among the most widely held hedge funds stocks in general. Appaloosa boosted its stake in No. 1 long Meta Platforms by about 30 percent, No. 2 holding Microsoft by more than 31 percent, and No. 3 Amazon by more than 18 percent. Alas, it more or less stood pat with its stake in No. 4 long Nvidia.
Elsewhere, Third Point initiated a sizable new stake in Meta Platforms, which instantly became the firm’s sixth-largest long position.
Sachem Head Capital Management initiated three new positions to join its top-eight holdings. All of them are health care–related: health care provider Humana, life sciences contract research organization Fortrea, and medical technology company Masimo. Note that Sachem Head’s two largest longs — food distributor US Food Holdings and additive manufacturer International Flavors & Fragrances — together account for nearly two-thirds of U.S. common stock longs.
Elsewhere, activist Corvex Management initiated a stake in Endeavor Group Holdings, a sports and entertainment company and now the activist’s fifth-largest U.S. common stock long.
