Q2 13F Highlights

This week, we highlight interesting changes from last week’s quarterly 13F release. For OWL users, we provided a more comprehensive list of buys and sells in Friday’s newsletter. If you’re interested in learning more about how OWL can help track manager behavior, reach out! 

Hedge Funds check in on United Health

In our Q3 2024 13F recap, we flagged the surge of buying in power and electrical names. Those buys have aged well: Talen Energy (+66%), Vistra (+19%), GE Vernova (+75%), and Constellation Energy (+25%) have all rallied since.

This quarter, healthcare is the standout theme - particularly UnitedHealth Group (UNH). The stock is down 40% year-to-date, hit by weak earnings, leadership turnover, and mounting regulatory scrutiny. Yet, the slump has drawn in a wave of new buyers.

 UnitedHealth Stock Price

Most notably, Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a $1.5 billion position in UNH in Q2 – its first stake in the stock since 2010. David Tepper made an equally eye-catching move, boosting Appaloosa’s holdings more than 13x to an estimated $743 million.

They weren’t alone. A long list of managers piled into UNH, including Naya, Scion, Solel Partners, Vulcan Value, Kerrisdale, Marshfield Associates, Abdiel, Prosight Capital, Route One, Eagle Capital, Pentwater, Camber Capital, Graham Partners, Wolf Hill, Steadfast, Lone Pine, and many more (full roster is available on UnitedHealth’s OWL page).

What’s striking is not just the volume of buying, but the wide range the buyers: large and small funds, value and growth shops, even event-driven specialists all found reasons to get involved.

Gobi Capital

Another manager that initiated a position in Q2 was Gobi Capital, a Los Angeles-based long/short equity fund founded by Bo Shan. Shan founded the firm after several years at Scion Capital, where he was one of Michael Burry’s first hires. Burry was featured prominently in The Big Short as one of the investors who bet against the US housing market prior to the 2008 financial crisis. Burry closed Scion Capital in 2008 and re-opened as Scion Asset Management in 2013. Interestingly, Scion also bought shares of UNH during the quarter.

Gobi is backed by the Conrad Hilton Foundation and the California Endowment, and has generated strong performance, according to OWL estimates:

On the long side, Gobi runs a concentrated portfolio with 12 disclosed positions totaling about $2 billion. Meta, which Gobi trimmed slightly in Q2, comprises 26% of the disclosed portfolio today.

We estimate that Gobi has generated $1.5 billion in profits since 2017, with the most profitable positions including Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, and Copart (an online auto marketplace). OWL users can see our batting average and P&L by position analyses for Gobi (and thousands of other managers) on our platform.

Other 13F Highlights

NVIDIA

• Altimeter, Light Street. Whale Rock, WindAcre, Appaloosa, Coatue added

• Franchise, Hound trimmed

• New position for Dragoneer

Coupang

• Greenoaks, Kontiki, Nellore, Durable added

• Sequoia Heritage, HMI, Dragoneer trimmed

• New position for Steadfast

Visa

• Alfreton, TCI, Hudson Way, Bronte added

• Immersion, Hengistbury trimmed

Other News & Events

• Millennium backs ex-Goldman commodities head’s new hedge fund with $1bn allocation

• Surging Q2 Financials Fuel Norway SWF’s H1 Return

• Cresset Announces Strategic Combination with Monticello Associates, Approaches $200 Billion in Assets

• CPPIB commits $250 million to Taproot Management

• More Small and Mid-Sized Endowments Expected to Turn to OCIOs Following Tax Overhaul

• Caltech hiring Director of Investments

• University of Houston Reports 9.5% FY Return

• Virginia Retirement System Reports 9.9% FY Return

• Kansas State Reports 6.6% FY Return

• Alaska Permanent reports 9.35% FY Return

Please feel free to selectively share these updates with high-quality allocators who might be interested in learning more about OWL.

About Old Well Labs

OWL is an intelligence platform built for allocators, by allocators. Leading endowments, foundations, and family offices use the system to find, monitor, and connect with thousands of fund managers globally. OWL's analytics engine has collected over one billion data points from 65 countries. We make it easy for allocators to find and track information about the managers they care about – not just positions but also performance analytics, people data, business information, and details about the manager investments of other allocators.

Disclaimers

Returns represent the return on invested capital of publicly disclosed long positions, as calculated by OWL. Actual returns may vary based on a number of factors, including (but not limited to) undisclosed positions, short exposure, non-equity holdings, cash holdings, and lagged disclosure of positions.

This newsletter and the material on the Old Well Labs platform are for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, manager, or strategy. Old Well Labs shall not be liable for any investment gain or loss that may occur from the use of this material. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or used in any publication without express written permission from Old Well Labs.