Stan Druckenmiller went on a stock-buying spree in the third quarter. The legendary macro maven established 31 new U.S. common stock positions during the period, the second-most new positions he has taken in any quarter in over four years, according to the most recent 13F filing, detailing the third-quarter U.S. stock holdings of Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office.
At the end of the third quarter, Duquesne held 73 different common stocks totaling about $2.4 billion — the largest number of issues it has ever held since it began filing quarterly stock holding documents. The U.S. asset allocation is more or less consistent with previous years.
At the same time, Duquesne fully unloaded 22 different common stocks last quarter, none of which were significant holdings the previous quarter.
Only one of the 31 new positions is currently a major holding. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking exchange-traded fund is now Duquesne’s seventh-largest U.S. common stock long position. It is up more than 11 percent since Election Day.
Of the 30 other new positions, most are rather insignificant, each representing less than 0.5 percent of the overall portfolio’s assets. However, a few are medium-size.
For example, Duquesne’s second-largest new position in the third quarter was Broadcom, the maker of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. The stock, which is now Duquesne’s 14th-largest U.S. common stock long, is down about 10 percent since Election Day. Biopharmaceuticals company Ascendis Pharma is Duquesne’s third-largest new position.
In the third quarter, Duquesne also made major additions and subtractions to previous top holdings. For one, it boosted its stake in Natera, a clinical genetic testing company, by 80 percent, making it the family office’s largest U.S. common stock long at the end of September.
And in the same quarter, Duquesne sharply cut the stakes of several former top-ten positions.
The most significant sale: The family office unloaded about 90 percent of its shares in Microsoft after selling approximately 64 percent of its stake in the second quarter. The cloud computing giant went from being Duquesne’s largest U.S.-listed common stock long at the end of the first quarter to just the 32nd-largest at the end of September.
Duquesne also sharply cut its stakes in two energy-related companies in the third quarter.
It reduced its position in energy infrastructure company Kinder Morgan by more than 60 percent. It dropped to the 11th-largest long from eighth place at the end of the second quarter. And Duquesne slashed its stake in Vistra Corp. by about 85 percent. The retail electricity and power generation company was the family office’s third-largest U.S. long at the end of the second quarter.
It is not known exactly how the rest of Duquesne’s portfolio is positioned. But at an October investment conference, Druckenmiller provided some general insights into his non-U.S. stock investments.
He said he was shorting U.S. bonds and not participating in the then-rally in Chinese stocks, saying he has “no interest” in China “as long as Xi Jinping is running” the country, according to MarketWatch, citing observers at the conference. Druckenmiller said the bond shorts accounted for between 15 and 20 percent of his portfolio, per MarketWatch. He told attendees he did not know whether it would take six months or six years for the bond bet to play out. The investor also noted that he “loves” Japan, according to the report, and deemed Argentina a “great investment opportunity” with a “brilliant leader,” referring to Javier Milei, who was elected president last year.
