By Anirban Sen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Wall Street's largest hedge funds reduced exposure to "Magnificent Seven" stocks including Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta in the third quarter, while taking new positions
in application software, e-commerce and payments companies, according to regulatory filings on Friday.
During the quarter ended September 30, several funds also reduced their exposure to prominent names in healthcare and energy.
The latest positions marked a shift from the second quarter when several leading stock-picking firms were much more bullish on Big Tech names after witnessing a boom in artificial intelligence valuations. Since then, those lofty valuations have started to descend.
Markets were broadly up during the third quarter, with the S&P 500 rising by nearly 8%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index rose about 9% during the quarter.
Bonds also posted gains on expectations of monetary easing that pushed benchmark 10-year yields down about seven basis points. Yields decline when bond prices rise.
During the quarter, Bridgewater increased its stake in Fiserv, and Discovery initiated a position in the payments software firm. Both funds made their moves before Fiserv reported disappointing results and cut its revenue guidance for the second consecutive quarter. The news led to its market capitalization dropping about $30 billion in a single day.
Bridgewater increased its exposure to sectors such as application software and payments, as it upped its holdings in Adobe, Dynatrace and Etsy.
Lone Pine Capital and Tiger Global cut their stakes in Facebook parent Meta Platforms by 34.8% and 62.6% respectively, while Bridgewater and Coatue were among the funds that reduced their exposure to Nvidia.
The latest positions were revealed in filings known as 13-Fs, which hedge funds and other institutional investors file at the end of each quarter. While they are backward-looking and do not reveal current holdings or short positions, the filings offer investors a glimpse of the portfolios of often-secretive funds.
Bridgewater, which enjoyed a stellar run during the first nine months of the year as it outperformed its top peers, slashed its stake in Nvidia by nearly two-thirds to 2.5 million shares and in Alphabet by more than 50% to 2.65 million shares.
Discovery Capital, which was founded by Rob Citrone, took new positions in names like Alphabet, steel maker Cleveland-Cliffs, and health insurers Cigna and Elevance Health.
Dmitry Balyasny's multi-strategy hedge fund Balyasny Asset Management increased its stake several-fold in iPhone maker Apple.
Several changes at billionaire Philippe Laffont's Coatue Management were around big AI names. The firm reduced its holdings in AI industry bellwether Nvidia by 14.1% to 9.9 million shares, joining some other high-profile firms such as Bridgewater and Michael Burry's Scion Asset Management which have reduced their exposure to the company.
Berkshire Hathaway revealed a $4.3 billion stake in Google parent Alphabet and further reduced its stake in Apple, detailing its equity portfolio for the last time before Warren Buffett ends his 60-year run as chief executive officer.
A Bridgewater spokesperson declined to comment on the fund's latest positions. The other funds did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Anirban Sen in New York, additional reporting by Davide Barbuscia; editing by Megan Davies and Cynthia Osterman)
