Investing

Big Time Investor Chris Hohn Made Big Changes to $42 Billion Fund

Will Ashworth

Published: February 20, 2025 4:23 pm

Chris Hohn is the founder of TCI Fund Management, a London-based hedge fund. It had $42.4 billion in U.S.-listed assets under management, according to its Q4 2024 13F holdings report. Overall, TCI manages approximately $57 billion for its clients. 

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the billionaire, whose firm invests in just 10 U.S. stocks, is worth $8.8 billion. Even though TCI has so few stocks invested across $42.4 billion, the billionaire portfolio manager made five changes to his hedge fund’s assets in the final quarter of 2024. 

In Q4 2024, Hohn trimmed three positions and added to two others while making no new purchases or closing out any of the hedge fund’s 10 stocks. 

The five moves with the most impact involved Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI). 

Here’s why. 

Key Points About This Article:

• Chris Hohn’s TCI Fund Management only owns 10 stocks, but he made changes to five of them in the fourth quarter. 
• The hedge fund continues to trim its Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) position. 
• The hedge fund took the proceeds and moved them into Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), a sign the Magnificent Seven stock isn’t dead. 
• If you’re looking for some stocks with huge potential, make sure to grab a free copy of our brand-new “The Next NVIDIA” report. It features a software stock we’re confident has 10X potential.

Five Changes to 50% of TCI’s Holdings

As I wrote in the introduction, TCI made five changes during the fourth quarter, leaving the other five for another quarter. 

The stocks with no changes were Moody’s (NYSE:MCO), Visa (NYSE:V), S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (NYSE:CP), and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL). These are the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 9th-largest positions in the portfolio. 

Interestingly, while Hohn did nothing with its GOOGL position, it did sell 420,000 Class C non-voting Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares. It first acquired the Class C shares in Q3 2017, while it only bought the voting Class A shares in Q3 2023. I suspect it acquired the voting shares to have a say in Alphabet’s operations.

The other smaller stock sale was a 4.53% reduction in its GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE) stock. However, GE remains Hohn’s largest holding valued at $7.67 billion as of Dec. 31. They’re already up nearly 24% through the first six weeks in 2025. 

The third stock sold is the most significant. I’ll get to that below. 

As for the additions to the hedge fund’s positions in the fourth quarter, Hohn made one big and one small. I’ll get to the significant addition shortly. 

The smaller one was a purchase of 238,184 shares of Ferrovial (NASDAQ:FER), the Spanish builder and operator of large-scale infrastructure assets such as airports and highways. Ferrovial is an excellent company, but it is the hedge fund’s smallest position, the only one of the 10 valued at under $1 billion. 

TCI Sold Stock In CP

TCI holds positions in two Canadian railroads, with CP being its sixth-largest. As mentioned, it made no changes to the Calgary-based railroad in the fourth quarter. However, as mentioned in the introduction, it cut its position in CNI. 

Hohn sold 5.7 million CNI shares in the fourth quarter, a 16.2% reduction in its position, likely generating nearly $600 million in proceeds from the sale. However, it still owns 29.7 million shares worth $3.04 billion, or 7.11% of its portfolio. Between CNI and CP, it owns approximately $7 billion in railroad stock.  

TCI has owned both stocks since 2018, with CP being the most profitable of the two positions in the six years since. In 2024, the hedge fund sold down 35% of its CNI holdings. 

The question is, why? The answer is a combination of mediocre results and impatience. 

The company reported Q4 2024 results at the end of January. Its revenues were C$17.05 billion, 1% lower than a year earlier, and operating profits declined 10% to C$1.63 billion. 

No one ever went broke generating a profit, but given that TCI’s shares were trading at the same level they were in 2020, it makes sense for TCI to keep reducing its position, using the proceeds to invest in a winner like Microsoft. 

Hohn Keeps Adding to Microsoft

In the fourth quarter, TCI acquired slightly over 2 million shares of MSFT, upping its stake in the Magnificent Seven stock by 16.7% over Q3 2024. This position remains the hedge fund’s third-largest, accounting for 13.91% of its portfolio. 

Hohn first acquired Microsoft stock in Q4 2017, buying 8.07 million shares. It now owns nearly 14 million, 73% higher over 28 quarters. WhaleWisdom.com estimates the average price paid for its shares is $368.19, so it’s made money on its investment. 

On the surface, based on its current share price, you might think that’s not much of a return over seven years. However, TCI held 22.3 million shares at the end of 2022, paying an average price per share of $176.60. By the end of 2023, it had just 10.6 million, which means it sold 11.7 million shares in 2023. 

Based on the average of the high ($384.30) and low ($219.35) in 2023, it probably generated profits of nearly $1.5 billion from selling MSFT at opportunistic prices. 

In 2024, TCI increased its Microsoft holdings by 32%, most likely because it was enthusiastic about the software firm’s big push into AI. 

What do they say, “You have to be good, to be lucky.”