Perhaps better known by some for his ownership of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, David Tepper is a legend in the hedge fund world. His Appaloosa fund remains a powerful force in the market, helmed by the proven investor.
Tepper launched the fund in 1993 and consistently outperformed the broader market, thanks to superb market timing and the knack for finding value in distressed investments.
Naturally, investors like to keep tabs on what he’s been doing, just like with Ray Dalio, Warren Buffett and others. Let’s look at some of the stocks Tepper has been buying and selling.
David Tepper Takes Gains In Energy
Traders following activist investor activity may note that while the market sentiment hints at a trend out of energy and technology, Tepper is either one step ahead or wrong.
It appears Tepper is looking to take advantage of some of the market’s biggest rips and dips, which some interpret as sector preference change indicating betting tech stocks have bottomed, and energy stocks have peaked.
Appaloosa’s latest Form 13F shows it sold its stakes in the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (US:XLE) and the SPDR S & P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (US:XOP).
Before the second quarter, Appaloosa owned 695,000 XLE ETF shares worth $53 million and about $38 million of XOP, or 285,000 shares.
Tepper also unloaded his stake in Apache (US:APA) and Western Midstream Partners (US:WES), and reduced his position in Antero Resources (US:AR) and Chesapeake Energy (US:CHK).
Tepper also sold roughly 70% of his 2.84 million share Occidental Petroleum (US:OXY) stake, which now stands at 875,000 shares.
Interestingly, Warren Buffett continued to accumulate Occidental shares in the second quarter and surpassed the 20% ownership mark.
Tepper upped his stake in the energy midstream, which includes field services and transportation to oil and gas producers, as he raised his in MPLX LP (US:MPLX), a pipeline company, to 192,300 from 120,000 shares.
The XLE and the XOP both reached 52-week highs in the second quarter.
New Buys: CRM, BABA, NFLX
Appaloosa bought the tech sector’s second quarter swoon selectively, rotating into a handful of bruised favorites.
He bought 200,000 Alibaba (US:BABA) shares, 100,000 Salesforce (US:CRM) shares and 50,000 Netflix (US:NFLX) shares.
The bear took a bigger bite out of the trio it did the broader market; Alibaba shares took a stomach-turning 77% peak to trough plunge; that number was 50.5% at Salesforce, and 76.8% at Netflix.
Tepper’s Alibaba sentiment is at odds with fellow investor Ray Dalio, who recently liquidated his stake in Alibaba.
Tepper bought a stake worth roughly $9 million on Aug. 19. It was Dalio’s second-largest position, almost 7.5 million shares, currently worth about $675 million.
Appaloosa’s Biggest Holdings
Tepper initiated a Constellation Energy (US:CEG) position, a 2.7 million share stake. He more than doubled his Kohl’s (US:KSS) position to 1.875 million shares from 700,000 a 159% jump. The buy was Tepper’s largest increase in an existing holding in the quarter.
Alphabet (US:GOOG, US:GOOGL) remained the fund’s largest stake, valued at $332.6 million. However, Tepper trimmed this position to 100,000 shares from 119,000 shares.
Tepper raised his Meta (US:META) stake to one million shares from 890,000, making it his second-largest holding, worth about $161 million.
Meta’s holding bumped Appaloosa’s $159 million Amazon (US:AMZN) to third among its top holdings.
This article originally appeared on Fintel
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