Q2/2025 Superinvestor Portfolio Update
Let's dive into those lovely 13F Filings and learn what the Superinvestors bought and sold
Invest at your own risk; this is not financial advice! This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any securities discussed in the article.
Intro
The SEC requires funds with at least $100m assets under management to publish their holdings 45 days after the end of the quarter. This is a great source for us to see what the truly great investors are holding. Keep in mind that all movements that you will see happened in the previous quarter.
The important thing is to check the portfolios of investors who are as like-minded as you are. For me, these investors and funds include (among others) Dev Kantesaria, AltaRock Partners, Terry Smith, Li Lu, Valley Forge, Polen Capital, and David Tepper. All of these investors tend to hold great companies for a long time, and if they add to a completely new position, then it is always worth taking a deeper look.
Some investors like Michael Burry have such a large turnover in their portfolios that it may well be that the investments you see in their most recent 13F filings are no longer part of their portfolio. Therefore, the value of this information is very short-lived and may be outdated. To give you an idea about the changes in Michael Burry’s portfolio: Compare his Q4/2024 portfolio with his Q1/2025 portfolio. The only company that remained was Estee Lauder.
You will find a snapshot of the current portfolio of those fund managers whom I follow closely below, with my comments on the changes in their holdings. At the end of the article, you will find a summary of the changes and patterns that emerged.
Enjoy!
Before we start: What were your most interesting buys and sells by your favorite manager? Let me know!
AltaRock Partners
Quite some activity for AltaRock in Q2: The large position in Alphabet was reduced by 70% and Visa was reduced by 37%. The proceeds were used to increase Amazon by 21%, making it the second-largest position of the fund and doubling the still small position in Hilton.
This portfolio is made up entirely of outstanding companies
Terry Smith - Fundsmith
Terry Smith has a broadly diversified portfolio and is not as concentrated as Alta Rock Partners or Valleyforge. Due to this fact, there are a lot of small changes. Terry Smith kept the theme of Q1 by reducing the top positions across the board.
The largest changes to the portfolio were the complete sale of Brown-Forman (one of the largest spirit and wine companies in the world) and reductions of Philip Morris and Meta. One might say that he reduced his exposure to vice companies.
Intuit and Vertiv were the only noteworthy buys
Talking about Brown-Forman: Alcoholic beverage companies are facing a hard time with the amount of Gen Z drinking regularly being significantly below that of previous generations. While this is fantastic news for society in general and our health system, the formerly steadfast wineries and distilleries are facing a hard time.
The shares of its largest competitor, Diageo, show a similar pattern, and the stock has been dead money since 2013 (excluding the dividends). Make sure to be aware of large changes in trends and move your money accordingly.
Valley Forge Capital Management
Valley Forge is as concentrated as they come, and the fund I am most looking forward to every 13F season. Fund manager Dev Kantesaria had an even quieter Q2 compared to Q1 and only reduced his Intuit position.
The fund manager Dev Kantesaria is one of the managers that I follow most closely, and if he and the team decide to add a new company to the fund, it is a must for me to learn more about these two companies.
In my last super investor report in Q1, I wrote the following sentence with the following screenshot:
Given the insane run of Fair Isaac, I fully understand his rationale behind trimming the position a bit.
It turns out that the fine Sir knew exactly what he was doing: As expected, Fair Isaac came back quite a bit since then
This interview is a fantastic starting ground if you want to learn more about Dev Kantesaria and his philosophy. I highly encourage you to watch it:
Polen Capital Management
Quite a large portfolio, and here are the top positions. Compared to the fellow above, Polen Capital is on fire and always trims and adds to its positions. The largest changes in Q2 were a complete sell of Apple and United Health, as well as a 22% trim of Amazon. The newly invested money flowed into IDEXX, Starbucks, ServiceNow, and Adobe.
Starbucks has been discussed broadly on X and Substack. I understand why people find it cheap, given the strength of the brand. I would not invest in Starbucks, since I don’t see much room for further stores (the US is already full) and the continuous price increases are reaching sky-high levels.
I believe there are many more attractive companies out there, for example, Arista. Learn more here
Arista Networks Stock Analysis & Deep Dive
Intro May is coming close, and so is my annual trip to Omaha. I am attending an investor conference in Omaha, and one requirement (and the fun part) is to pitch one idea. As a preparation, I went through my watchlist of more than 100 great companies to decide which one I will present this year.
Bill Ackman - Pershing Square Capital Management
General Ackman (based on his fierce tweets) was a bit quieter than in Q1. He bought Amazon and made it his fourth-largest position while selling all of his Canadian Pacific Railway shares. Alphabet saw a 21% increase.
David Tepper - Appaloosa Management
David Tepper is one of the top fund managers with the largest China exposure and trimmed his Chinese positions quite a bit (Alibaba -23%, Pinduoduo -54% and his China ETF -82%). Instead, he was very busy betting on the turnaround of both United Health and Intel, both companies with a very bad news flow in the last months.
If you want to invest in the market leader in CPUs (AMD), then make sure to read my deep dive:
I’ve been talking with friends about UnitedHealth recently, and I get why some people want to bet on the turnaround. UnitedHealth is, after all, still one of the largest insurance companies in the world. I myself would rather invest my money in companies where I know that the business model is not facing severe challenges.
Chris Hohn - TCI Fund Management
If you want to read the full article and learn who bought ASML for the first time, and also learn about the portfolio of Chris Hohn, ValueAct, Pat Dorsey, AKO Capital, Francois Rochon, and Chuck Akre, as well as a conclusion, please subscribe and support my work. To all existing subscribers: Thank you for your support, and enjoy the rest of the article!
