13F: What do hedge funds buy and sell?

When Warren Buffett decides to step down as CEO of Berkshire (at the age of 94), he does not make any significant changes to his massive stock portfolio worth $260 billion. The only actions remain the traditional, slow unwinding of his bets in the banking/financial sector and occasionally modestly increasing existing positions (Constellation Brands, Occidental), while continuing to accumulate a record amount of cash, which currently reaches $350 billion.

What are the other major hedge funds doing?

Two answers:

1. It doesn’t matter. All these investment theses that existed as of March 31 become meaningless just four days later, when Trump triggers the short-term crash on Liberation Day. This forces most funds to unload exposures and start rapidly unwinding their portfolios.
2. Here’s what some of the most iconic hedge funds bought and sold in Q1, according to data from NewSquawk:

Appaloosa

• New purchases: Deutsche Bank (DB), L3Harris (LHX), Broadcom (AVGO), Block (XYZ)
• Increases: Uber (UBER), NRG Energy (NRG), Meta (META), Corning (GLW), UnitedHealth (UNH)
• Decreases: Microsoft (MSFT), Oracle (ORCL), Vistra (VST), Amazon (AMZN), Qualcomm (QCOM), Nvidia (NVDA)
• Exits completely: AMD, FedEx, EQT Corp, Antero Resources, Expand Energy, Intel
• Main positions: Alibaba, PDD, Amazon, JD.com, Meta

Berkshire Hathaway

• New purchases: none
• Increases: Constellation Brands, VeriSign, Pool, Domino’s Pizza, Heico, Occidental Petroleum, Sirius XM
• Decreases: Bank of America, Capital One, DaVita, Charter Communications, T-Mobile, Formula One Group
• Exits completely: Citigroup, Nubank
• Main positions: Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, Chevron

Elliott Management

• New purchases: Equinix, OR Royalties, Sandisk
• Increases: Phillips 66
• Decreases: Match Group, Southwest, CorMedix, Arm Holdings
• Exits completely: NRG Energy, Bausch Health
• Main positions: Triple Flag, Suncor, Phillips 66, Southwest, Pinterest

Greenlight Capital

• New purchase: Dollar Tree
• Increases: VanEck Oil Services ETF, Seadrill, Teck Resources, Capri, Century Casinos, HP Inc, Liberty Global, DHT Holdings, Teva Pharmaceutical
• Decreases: Alight, Peloton, Centene, VanEck Gold Miners ETF, CNH Industrial
• Exits completely: First Trust Natural Gas ETF, SPDR S&P Retail ETF, Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF

Icahn Enterprises

• New purchases: none
• Increases: CVR Energy, JetBlue, Illumina, CVR Partners
• Decreases: Southwest Gas
• Exits completely: none
• Main positions: Icahn Enterprises, CVR Energy, Southwest Gas, CVR Partners, International Flavors

Lone Pine Capital

• New purchases: Carvana, Toll Brothers, Cadence, Wingstop
• Increases: Intuit, ASML, AppLovin, Starbucks, Microsoft
• Decreases: Philip Morris, Vistra, Meta, Eli Lilly, Ares Management
• Exits completely: PTC, Spotify, Workday, Constellation Energy, Howmet
• Main positions: Meta, Intuit, Amazon, Starbucks

Paulson & Co.

• New purchases: Honeywell, Intra-Cellular
• Increases: Madrigal Pharma, International Tower Hill Mines
• Decreases: none
• Exits completely: Alphabet
• Main positions: Madrigal, Perpetua, Acadian Asset Management, Bausch Health, Agnico Eagle Mines

Pershing Square

• New purchase: Uber. Converts its Nike position into deep ITM call options
• Increases: Brookfield, Hertz, Alphabet
• Decreases: Hilton Worldwide, Alphabet (GOOG), Chipotle, Canadian Pacific Kansas City
• Exits completely: none
• Main positions: Uber, Brookfield, Restaurant Brands, Howard Hughes, Chipotle

Scion Asset Management

• New purchase: Estee Lauder
• Increases: none
• Decreases: none
• Exits completely: Alibaba, Estee Lauder, PDD, HCA Healthcare, Bruker, VF Corp, Magnera, Oscar Health, Canada Goose, American Coastal Insurance, Molina Healthcare, JD.com

Soros Fund Management

• New purchases: American Electric Power, Entergy, JPMorgan, TKO, Xtrackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF, Nvidia, Kellanova, CoreWeave, Walgreens Boots Alliance
• Increases: SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, Flutter, Goldman Sachs, Standard Aero, Corebridge Financial, Nike, Amazon, FedEx, Pony AI
• Decreases: Alphabet, JD.com, Smurfit Westrock, iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF, KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF, AstraZeneca
• Exits completely: iShares Russell 2000 ETF, Arthur J. Gallagher, Alibaba, Jacobs, Ventas, Eli Lilly, Boeing, Microsoft, TSMC, SuperMicro, AIG
• Main positions: Smurfit Westrock, AstraZeneca, SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, GFL Environmental, AerCap

Starboard Value

• New purchases: Qorvo, Becton Dickinson
• Increases: Autodesk, Kenvue, Algonquin Power, Salesforce, Alight
• Decreases: Pfizer, Fortrea, Match Group, Riot Platforms, iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF, News Corp
• Exits completely: GoDaddy, Wix.com
• Main positions: Qorvo, Kenvue, Autodesk, Gen Digital, Match Group

Third Point

• New purchases: Kenvue, Nvidia, CoStar, U.S. Steel, Casey’s, AT&T, Pinterest
• Increases: Apollo, Telephone and Data Systems, Live Nation, Primo Brands, Capital One, Discover Financial Services
• Decreases: Amazon, Microsoft, Intercontinental Exchange, Brookfield, Jacobs
• Exits completely: Danaher, Meta, Ferguson, Tesla, Thermo Fisher, Workday
• Main positions: PG&E, Amazon, TSMC, Live Nation, Telephone and Data Systems

Trian Fund Management

• New purchases: none
• Increases: Allstate
• Decreases: Ferguson, Wendy’s
• Exits completely: none
• Main positions: Janus Henderson, General Electric, Solventum, Wendy’s, Invesco

ValueAct Capital

• New purchases: Rocket Companies, Nu Holdings
• Increases: Meta, Visa, Liberty Live Group (both classes of shares)
• Decreases: Roblox, Live Nation Entertainment, Expedia, Toast
• Exits completely: none