This is the first of a three-part series. Part 1 covers the state of the nation plus some of the better-known investors, while Part 2 will cover some less-known investors worth following. Part 3 will bring it all together, and we will look at the big trends and takeaways from these quarterly filings and include a short take on the major moves.
Find Part 2 here:
Find Part 3 here:
The SEC requires funds with at least $100m in 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.
If you want to go beyond reading and actually invest alongside me, you can invest in my Wikifolio. Every position reflects the same research-driven, long-term investing approach behind these deep dives — including investments such as Arista Networks, Alphabet, ASML, AMD, and now Booking. You will find it here:
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 Therefore, the value of this information is very short-lived and may be outdated.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 Estée 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!
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.
In case you are wondering which stocks I find very attractive right now, make sure to read my best buys article for August:
Best Buys August 2026 | Buying quality while the market looks elsewhere
It is summertime, and it is hot outside. So are the markets. At least most of the days, unless there is a casual 8% drop in ASML and AMD, as happened on the 27th of July, or the casual 13% jump for AMD yesterday. That is why I chose a rollercoaster as the title image. Rollercoasters can be great fun or cause sheer terror depending on your personality. The same is true for investors. Some see volatility as their friend - you can buy great companies at a discount, while others freak out if one of their beloved holdings drops double digits in a single trading session.
State of the Nation in Q2/2026
Let’s recap what the world looked like in early 2026 when the fund managers made their moves. The S&P500 started from the April lows and rose by 15% until the end of June, a fantastic quarter. The NASDAQ even posted the best quarter with +21% since 2020.
The market rise was mostly a recovery from a bad Q1 with scars from the Iran war. AI spending was still strong, and the sign pointed towards a long-term capex-intensive buildout, favoring chip companies and the overall ecosystem. Oil prices calmed down, and so did inflation fears and fears of a prolonged interest-rate-hike environment.
Learn more about the state of AI here:
AI observations – July 2026: The biggest AI trends you should know
The current AI boom and AI buildout are both deeply fascinating and causing headaches at the same time. In this article, I will explain some trends that I am seeing and topics that you should be aware of. Among these are rising inference costs, exploding energy costs, Chinese AI models, and geopolitical restrictions, which have a major impact on the world.
Time to have a look at what the fund managers that I track closely bought and sold. There are always some gems hidden!
To clarify my terminology: If I talk about the largest change, I am referring to the largest change in relation to the portfolio size. A reduction of 10% of a position that has a 50% weight in the portfolio is a larger change in absolute dollar terms than a 70% reduction in a position that only made up 2% of the fund.
I hope you are enjoying this, and I would love to win you as a subscriber and as an X follower.
AltaRock Partners
As usual, we start with A, as AltaRock Partners. This portfolio is made up entirely of outstanding companies. The by far largest change was a 24% reduction in the largest fund position, namely Amazon, followed by a 65% reduction in Moody’s. The proceeds were used to increase the existing positions in Microsoft (+25%), Mastercard (+46%) and Visa (+68%).
Both Visa and Mastercard are the perfect examples of a toll bridge. The infrastructure is already there, and any additional revenue is converted to more net income. I really like the Mastercard buy, a company that I wrote about in detail here:
Terry Smith - Fundsmith
Some words upfront: While I really like what Terry Smith is doing and how he presents his ideas and learnings, he had quite a bad streak in terms of performance: The Fundsmith fund has performed rather poorly in recent years, and 2025, as well as the first half of 2026, was unfortunately no exception. Until the end of July, Fundsmith lost 2.7%.
Fundsmith has seen severe outflows due to the lackluster performance, and the assets under management have decreased big time. Ouch! Terry Smith talked openly about investing more on a momentum basis, and we saw the results in Q2:
Mettler Toledo was fully exited, and so was Zoetis. Instead, Terry Smith embraced his new theme and started 5 (!) new positions, which are quite large for his size:
Uber, Mastercard, Taiwan Semiconductor, Netflix, and GE Vernova. Especially GE Vernova is a stock that he most likely wouldn’t have touched with a long stick in the past, given the strong performance of the recent months. I marked in red Q2, when he bought his shares.
Applovin is another stock that ran very well in recent months and was added to the portfolio.
Further notable moves were a 40% reduction in Alphabet, a 43% reduction in Philip Morris, a 41% reduction in Fortinet, and a 35% reduction in Visa. Let’s see how this new approach will work for Terry Smith.
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 was unusually active in Q2, selling parts of four positions and not buying a single one. This points to two alternatives: Either he was raising cash or the fund faced redemptions, causing Dev to liquidate some of his positions. Either way, you can interpret this as a sign that he believes that Moody’s, ASML and Intuit are his favorite positions, since he did not touch them.
Sorted by the impact on the fund, the largest changes were the 28% reduction in Mastercard, a 13% reduction in FICO, a 13% reduction in S&P Global, and a 23% reduction in Visa.
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.
As you can see, Polen Capital was on fire and always trims and adds to its positions. Interestingly, the largest moves were all reductions. Starting with the largest one, an 88% reduction in AON, 27% in Eli Lilly, 92% in Zoetis, 94% in Synopsys, and 26% in Microsoft. The first two buys are both daughters of General Electric: A new 2.2% portfolio position in GE Aerospace and a 2% portfolio position in GE Vernova.
GE Aerospace has been on a generational run, a fantastic position by Chris Hohn, more on him later.
GE Vernova is an indirect beneficiary of the AI boom. GE Vernova produces, amongst other things, gas turbines, which are in very high demand due to the data center build-out.
Bill Ackman - Pershing Square Capital Management
Bill Ackman was busy once again. He touched every single position, except one. He bought four new positions, with a combined portfolio weight of 21.6%. These positions are: Visa (5.8%), Mastercard (5.6%), S&P Global (5.4%), and Netflix (4.8%).
Bill Ackman and Netflix have a slightly complicated history. He originally bought shares in Q1/2022 and subsequently sold all of them in Q2/2022, almost perfectly timing the bottom.
I am showing you this to prove a point: Even the best investors in the world make mistakes. No one is perfect, and for sure not in terms of investing.
The most notable reduction occurred in Amazon, where he sold 25% of his position, while he added 48% to his Howard Hughes position.
Uber overtook Brookfield once again as the largest position. Both companies have been sharing the top spot in the portfolio since Q3/2024.
David Tepper - Appaloosa Management
Action across the board for David Tepper. After doubling his Micron position in Q4/25, he increased it by another 11% in Q1/26 and sold 41% (great number) in Q2. Given the insane rally (what else can you call it), I can understand that he sold a part of this position.
This is the end of the free section. If you want to learn about
✅ David Tepper’s SanDisk trade that likely netted him $300-400M — and why he sold all of it
✅ Why Chris Hohn dumped Microsoft entirely and bought two gravel companies instead
✅ ValueAct’s 323% increase in a single position most investors have never heard of
✅ Have full access to all previous articles
✅ Have profited from previous picks (ASML, Alphabet, Arista, AMD, and many more)
✅ and want to support me for my time and effort
Then, please become a paid subscriber. To all existing paid subscribers: You rock! 🙏
