MW Ray Dalio's Bridgewater made a new bet on Tesla. He may have gotten a bargain.

By Barbara Kollmeyer

The world's biggest hedge fund placed a new bet on EV maker Tesla Inc. late last year, as it exited memory chip maker Micron Technology and banking giant Goldman Sachs.

The latest 13-F filing from Bridgewater Associates shows the firm added a $62 million position in Tesla $(TSLA)$, or a 0.28% stake, in the fourth quarter. Tesla shares $(TSLA.UK)$ saw a strong post-election rally, due to Chief Executive Elon Musk's close relationship with President Donald Trump, finishing the year up 62% in 2024, though 2025 has been a tougher road for the automaker.

Elsewhere, the hedge fund founded by Ray Dalio upped its position in vaccine maker Moderna $(MRNA)$ , adding 605,782 shares for a 0.12% stake. It dumped Goldman Sachs $(GS)$ and Micron $(MU)$ and almost completely reduced holdings in Applied Materials $(AMAT)$. Exposure to several consumer staples stocks was also trimmed, such as CVS Health $(CVS)$ and Tyson Foods $(TSN.AU)$, according to WhaleWisdom, which tracks regulatory filings.

As for Tesla, there's no way of knowing when the hedge fund would have stepped in to buy shares, which took off after the U.S. election in November. But had it jumped in ahead of that time, it would have ridden Tesla higher late last year.

Large investors must disclose long positions in 13-F filings within 45 days of the end of a quarter. The filings are closely tracked by some investors, who also glean the reports for bigger investment trends, though the information is already dated by the time the market sees it.

But some doubts around Tesla have set in for 2025, with shares down nearly 12%, making it a weak performer among major U.S. technology companies. The stock is still up 88% over 12 months.

Analysts have pointed to several reasons for this, including disappointing recent quarterly results, and falling global sales amid stiffer competition from Chinese rivals such as BYD. As well, investors are worried about Musk getting distracted by his role in helping the government reduce waste via his Department of Government Efficiency, and his bid with a group of investors to take control of Open AI.

"The worry of the Street is that Musk dedicating so much time (even more than we expected) to DOGE takes away from his time at Tesla in such a crucial moment and year for the company," said a team of Wedbush analysts led by Dan Ives, in a note to clients earlier this week.

Read: 'Magnificent Seven' stocks may be cheap and the S&P 493 expensive, Bridgewater says. Here's why.

"Musk has always been able to balance his countless initiatives better than any other CEO we have seen and the innovation and tech machine at Tesla is actually accelerating into an autonomous and robotics future despite growing skepticism around Musk's DOGE balancing act," said Ives, who rates Tesla outperform.

Read: Bridgewater's Ray Dalio expresses deep concerns about U.S. debt

-Barbara Kollmeyer

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February 14, 2025 05:47 ET (10:47 GMT)

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