Trade Overview: Where Gurus Found Value in the 2nd Quarter

With the latest round of 13F filings released over the past month, investors and market watchers alike are interested in seeing where the major hedge fund managers are finding value opportunities.

Managers with more than $100 million in assets under management are required to disclose their holdings to the SEC each quarter via 13F filings. These filings are due 45 days after the quarter end date. For second-quarter 2024, that means managers must disclose all qualifying assets held on June 30, 2024 by Aug. 15, 2024. Qualifying assets include long positions in U.S. equities and ADRs, call/put options and convertible debt securities. Shorts, cash positions, foreign investments and other assets are not included.

Investors can take advantage of these 13F filings to create portfolios from managers that have proven past success. Despite the 45-day delay in reporting, research has shown that investing alongside a single manager or group of managers can outperform the market. The key is to identify the best and most consistent funds to copy.

The statistics in this report are based on our Premium gurus. These gurus are our hand-picked, best-performing value investors that have proven long-term records.

The GuruFocus Aggregated Portfolio, a Premium feature based on these managers’ quarterly filings, shows the 10 most broadly held stocks as of the end of the second quarter of 2024 included some Magnificent Seven names that were also popular in the previous quarter, such as software giant Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google parent Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and social media leader Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META).

While these stocks are quite popular overall, they did not all necessarily see the heaviest guru buying activity during the three months ended June 30. According to GuruFocus Hot Picks, that honor only goes to a handful of companies, including UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), CVS Health Corp. (NYSE:CVS) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM). However, a couple of these companies also recorded a lot of selling activity over the same period, such as Microsoft and Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE:TSM).

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Then there are those stocks that were bought by at least two gurus during the quarter, but did not record any sells. GuruFocus Consensus Picks shows these companies included names like Natera Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA), Molina Healthcare Inc. (NYSE:MOH) and even a couple exchange-traded funds.

On the sell side, GuruFocus Hot Picks found investors were shedding shares of a number of companies as well. While Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (PXD) and Shockwave Medical Inc. (SWAV) are listed, they were not necessarily sold. Rather, these companies were acquired or merged with other companies and, therefore, are recorded as a sale in our database. As such, News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWSA) actually recorded the largest number of sell transactions for the period.

As for gurus’ investments within individual sectors, the GuruFocus Industry Trends page shows the heaviest buying occurred in the software industry, likely driven by the ongoing craze for artificial intelligence technology. However, several other industries recorded good numbers as well.

Beyond the U.S., GuruFocus’ Geographic Trends shows other areas of the world where gurus found potential value opportunities.

You can see their overall exposure to different countries in the map below.

During the quarter, a number of well-known gurus were also making large bets in international companies by either entering new positions or expanding their existing holdings. For example, Canadian investor Francis Chou (Trades, Portfolio) boosted his stake in the Netherlands-based Stellantis NV (NYSE:STLA). Spain’s Azvalor also established a holding in Linea Directa Aseguradora SA (XMAD:LDA).

As for exchange-traded funds, gurus appeared to be loading up on exposure to indexes like the Standard & Poor’s 500 (SPY).

Even as the market continues to grapple with high inflation and interest rates, not to mention intensifying geopolitical conflicts and an upcoming presidential election, gurus’ trading activity shows there are plenty of investment opportunities available in the current environment.

Related Guru Screens you may be interested in:

Real-Time Picks

Aggregated Portfolio

Consensus Picks

Hot Picks

Guru Bargains

Industry Trends

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.

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