MW Stanley Druckenmiller bought Tesla and these tech stocks last quarter

By Barbara Kollmeyer

Closely followed investor Stanley Druckenmiller increased exposure to some big technology companies in the final quarter of 2024, taking new positions in Alphabet and Amazon.com, as well as EV maker Tesla.

The largest holding of his Duquesne Family Office remains Natera $(NTRA)$, with a stake representing just over 15% of its portfolio in the clinical genetic-testing company it has owned since 2022, according to 13-F regulatory filings tracked by WhaleWisdom.com. After having surged 152% in 2024, the stock is up 9.5% so far this year.

In the tech space, Seagate Technology Holdings $(STX)$ is Duquesne's seventh-largest holding, though that stake was nearly halved in the latest quarter to just over 3.6% of the portfolio. New holding Amazon $(AMZN)$ represents 1.94% of the portfolio, with Tesla $(TSLA)$ and Alphabet $(GOOGL)$ making up 0.41% and 0.39% stakes.

The investor exited chip maker Broadcom $(AVGO)$, which surged 107% last year, and Microsoft $(MSFT)$, which finished 2024 with a 12% gain. Alphabet and Amazon finished the year up 35% and 44%, respectively.

Druckenmiller wasn't the only big investor to pick up Tesla shares last quarter, with hedge-fund giant Bridgewater also buying into the Elon Musk car company, which rose 62% last year thanks to a postelection rally, when Musk emerged as a free-spending and vocal backer of Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Daniel Loeb's Third Point hedge fund boosted a stake in Tesla.

Some investors look to 13-Fs for clues as to where bigger investors are putting their money, though the information is dated by the time the filings are made public. And it's difficult to say whether Druckenmiller, who came to fame as George Soros's righthand man, and others are having any buyer's remorse over Tesla, as shares have lost 11% so far in 2024. Analysts blame earnings disappointment, falling global sales and concerns over Musk's potential distraction, as well as his having made himself a political lightning rod.

Druckenmiller's Duquesne also took new positions in United Airlines $(UAL)$ and Delta Air Lines $(DAL)$, along with Warner Bros. $(WBD)$, Skechers $(SKX)$ and Eli Lilly $(LLY)$. Teva Pharmaceuticals $(TEVA)$, the No. 4 position in the portfolio, was bumped up from a 0.87% stake to a 5.33% slice. Exposure to banks was trimmed, with the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF KRE trimmed to a 0.9% stake from 3.94% in the third quarter.

Druckenmiller last month expressed caution about the stock market. "You're going to have this push of a strong economy versus bond yields rising in response to that strong economy, and that kind of makes me not have a strong opinion one way or the other," he said in an interview.

-Barbara Kollmeyer

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February 17, 2025 11:27 ET (16:27 GMT)

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