Tracking the plays made by leading institutional investors can offer some insight into their respective investment philosophies, as well as the state of the stock market as a whole. It can also be a salutary reminder that, from time to time, even legends get it wrong. 

Buffett Cuts Apple to Build Up Cash Hoard

Warren Buffett took a huge bite out of his Apple [AAPL] holding this year, offloading 67% on January 1. However, thanks to the iPhone-maker’s share price riding the artificial intelligence (AI) wave, it’s believed he banked a hefty profit on the sales. 

Berkshire ended Q3 with a record-beating cash hoard of $325.2bn, up from $276.9bn at the end of Q2.

Apple remained Berkshire Hathaway’s [BRK-B] top holding as of September 30, accounting for 26% of its $266.3bn portfolio.

One of Buffett’s long-time favorite stocks, American Express [AXP], has also been one of the best gainers in 2024. He currently holds 151.6 million shares — he hasn’t bought or sold any since 2012 — and, in the first nine months of the year, the value of his position increased by 45% to $41.1bn. 

With American Express currently trading at an all-time high, Berkshire Hathaway’s next 13F filing in February may show another significant increase in its value.

Another of Buffett’s big gainers in 2024 has been Brazilian fintech Nu Holdings [NU]. Despite offloading 19% of his holding between January and September, the position’s value has increased 32% to $1.18bn. 

Successes aside, even the best investors make questionable judgement calls. For Buffett, this has been Paramount [PARA]. 

Having first bought into the media company in Q1 2022 with the purchase of approximately 68.9 million shares, he exited in Q2 of this year. It’s estimated that he made a loss of around $1.5bn. 

“I was 100% responsible for the Paramount decision,” admitted Buffett at Berkshire’s AGM in May. “It was 100% my decision, and we’ve sold it all and we lost quite a bit of money, and that happens in this business too.”

Fisher’s Tech Investments See Gains

Ken Fisher’s Fisher Investments grew from a value of $189.1bn at the end of Q4 2023 to $244bn at the end of Q3 2024. The number of holdings fell from 981 to 919. 

While Fisher’s decision to pile into Nvidia [NVDA], boosting his stake in the chipmaker by 982% in the first nine months of the year, attracted a lot of attention, the value of the position only increased 165% to $11.7bn in that time.

A number of Fisher’s tech holdings have been big gainers this year. 

While he only increased his Amazon [AMZN] position by 7% in the first nine months, the holding’s value rose by 31% to $8.32bn. The Apple stake was raised by 7%, but increased 30% in value to $13.65bn. His Meta [META] stake was raised by 21% but almost doubled to $3.75bn. Fisher cut his Oracle [ORCL] position by 3%, yet its value grew 57% to $3.05bn. 

However, Fisher may regret selling out of Palantir [PLTR], a big gainer in 2024, having exited in Q1. 

Palantir’s Renaissance

One firm that appears to have cashed in on Palantir’s ascension this year is Renaissance Technologies, the hedge fund founded by the late Jim Simons. 

Though it cut its stake in the AI software maker by 13.5% to approximately 38.4 million shares in the first nine months, its value has risen 95% to $1.42bn. The stock is currently the firm’s top holding, accounting for 2.1% of its portfolio, up from fourth-biggest and 1.2% of its portfolio at the end of 2023.

On the assumption that Renaissance hasn’t sold any in Q4, Stockcircle calculates its stake to be worth $2.86bn based on the most recent closing price, which would be 4.19% of the portfolio’s value at the end of Q3. 

Burry Bets Big on China 

Michael Burry has been doubling down on China this year as he bets that the country’s economy will turn around. 

Having exited Chinese stocks in Q2 2023, he’s been piling back in. 

In Q3, during which Beijing announced a stimulus blitz, Burry doubled his JD.com [JD] stake from the previous quarter and its value increased by 210% to $20m. He raised his Alibaba [BABA] holding by 29% and its value increased by 90% to $21.2m. His Baidu [BIDU] holding, meanwhile, was raised by 67% and its value increased by 103%, to $13.1m. As of September 30, the three stocks accounted for 41% of Scion Asset Management’s portfolio.

While Burry’s China bets seem to be paying off, he also added put options to his portfolio to offer him some downside protection. 

Coleman’s Sea Stake Surges 

One of the biggest gainers in Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management portfolio in the first nine months of 2024 was Singapore-based conglomerate Sea [SE]. He raised his stake by 12% from approximately 14.3 million shares to approximately 16 million shares. However, its value swelled from $579.9m to $1.51bn. 

Tiger Global’s stake in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company [TSM] was raised by 19% between Q4 2023 to Q3 2024, but its value effectively doubled from $316,000 to $631,000. 

Another notable gainer was the maker of weight-loss drug Mounjaro, Eli Lilly [LLY], with the number of shares increasing by just 9%, while its value rose 66% to $859.2m.