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Key Takeaways
- David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management entered several new positions in the fourth quarter, the biggest of those being large holdings in Oracle and the ARK Innovation ETF.
- Appaloosa also initiated positions in home improvement, building materials, and construction companies, including Masco, Mohawk Industries, Owens Corning, and others.
- Tepper reduced the size of positions in a large number of tech names, notably chipmakers AMD, Intel, Qualcomm and TSMC, but also Alphabet and Uber.
- The fund also boosted its position in a handful of tech companies, including Amazon and Alibaba.
- Appaloosa exited positions in Arista Networks and Enterprise Products Partners.
David Tepper’s hedge fund Appaloosa Management shifted its holdings away from semiconductor stocks during the fourth quarter while boosting its positions in other tech stocks. Appaloosa established large new positions in computer giant Oracle Corp. ( ORCL ) and the ARK Innovation ETF ( ARKK ), as well as smaller positions in building materials and home improvement names, according to the firm’s latest 13-F filing.
New Positions in Tech, Home Improvement Firms
In the fourth quarter of 2023, Appaloosa’s biggest new positions involved the purchase of 1.3 million shares in Oracle Corp. ( ORCL ) worth roughly $140 million and a call option for almost 2.6 million shares of the ARK Innovation ETF ( ARKK ) worth more than $133 million. Sizable new positions in FMC Corp. ( FMC ) and General Motors Co. ( GM ) were also notable.
Appaloosa also entered several new positions in the home improvement, construction, and building materials spaces. Tepper’s fund bought up 130,000 shares of home improvement firm Masco Corp. ( MAS ) valued at about $9 million. 95,000 shares of flooring manufacturer Mohawk Industries Inc. ( MHK ) worth almost $10 million, and 25,000 shares of insulation and glass company Owens Corning ( OC ), among others.
Reductions Across Tech, Boosts to Select Few
Appaloosa reduced its positions in a number of tech firms during the final months of 2023. The firm sold off 265,000 shares of Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ), 450,000 shares of Alphabet Class C stock ( GOOG ), 300,000 shares of Qualcomm Inc. ( QCOM ), about 1.25 million shares of Uber Technologies ( UBER ), and 500,000 shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. ( TSM ). The largest sell-off was nearly 1.7 million shares of Intel Corp. ( INTC ), although Appaloosa’s remaining 4.6 million shares are still worth about $231 million as of the filing.
Outside of the tech space, Tepper also made several other big cuts. His fund sold off about 700,000 shares of Chinese housing transaction company KE Holdings Inc. ( BEKE ), 550,000 shares of Macy’s Inc. ( M ), and over 600,000 shares of Chinese agricultural retailer PDD Holdings Inc. ( PDD ), trimming the last of these almost in half.
Appaloosa also added to several of its preexisting positions. The largest of these were a new 725,000 shares of Caesars Entertainment Inc. ( CZR ) and close to 500,000 shares of midstream oil company MPLX LP ( MPLX ). A select few tech firms also saw a boost in the portfolio. These include Alibaba Group Holding ( BABA ), with 750,000 new shares, Amazon ( AMZN ), with 200,000 new shares, and Microsoft ( MSFT ), which was boosted by 65,000 shares.
Two Prominent Exits
Appaloosa exited two positions entirely in the fourth quarter. The company sold off 250,000 shares of Arista Networks ( ANET ) and almost 500,000 shares of midstream oil and gas firm Enterprise Products Partners ( EPD ), closing out both positions at some point in the last three months of the year.