3 Key Takeaways From Q1 13F Season

May 15 was the last day for institutional money managers with at least $100 million in assets under management (AUM) to submit the his portfolio and increasing exposure to large U.S. banks, Buffett completely exited the Bank of New York (NYSE:BK) position, sending shares lower. Similarly, the legendary investor also liquidated his position in U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB).

“In terms of owning banks, events will determine their future and you’ve got politicians involved, you’ve got a whole lot of people who don’t really understand how the system works,” Buffett said at the recent annual shareholder meeting.

Elsewhere, Buffett added to his position in Apple (NASDAQ: NASDAQ:AAPL), which remains by far the biggest public holding. Based on Monday’s closing price, Berkshire’s Alphabet position given that shares are up 32.2% year-to-date.

Ackman’s Q1 trades come after he warned that the U.S. economy may be headed for a "train wreck" given the aggressive pace of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

"When combined with the higher cost of debt and deposits due to rising rates, consider what the impact will be on lending rates and our economy," he said. "The longer this banking crisis is allowed to continue, the greater the damage to smaller banks and their ability to access low-cost capital."

Nelson Peltz Buys More Disney Shares/h2

While activist investor Nelson Peltz, who runs the hedge fund Trian Fund Management, disclosed that he cut his stake in the Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) company, Bloomberg News reports that Peltz bought more shares since the end of Q1.

According to yesterday’s 13F filing, Peltz cut his stake in Disney to just over 5.9 million shares, a 34% decrease relative to the end of 2022 when Trian owned about 9.4 million shares. However, Bloomberg News reported that Peltz acquired about 500,000 more shares in April and/or May to now own about 6.4 million shares.

Disney shares gained 15% in the quarter but fell after the Q1 earnings report which showed a decrease in the number of paid Disney+ members . The activist investor was pushing for a board set in February.

“Disney committed to strategic and operating improvements that generally aligned with the initiatives we had previously discussed with the company,” Trian said in a statement Monday.

“We believe these initiatives can create value and are monitoring management’s execution closely.”

Elsewhere, Trian Fund cut its stake in Ferguson Plc (NYSE:FERG) by almost 50%, while also lowering positions in Invesco Plc (NYSE:IVZ) and The Wendy’s Co (NASDAQ:WEN). The fund completely exited its small position in Sysco (NYSE:SYY) while opening a new position in GE HealthCare Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:GEHC), which recently made its public debut after it was spun off from General Electric (NYSE:GE).

Summary/h2

As expected given the still-high market volatility, the most closely-watched money manager had a busy first quarter. Warren Buffett made several changes to his portfolio, including in the embattled banking sector, and whale Bill Ackman’s Pershing accumulated a large position in Google, whose stock benefited from the recent AI frenzy.

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Shane Neagle is the EIC of The Tokenist. Check out The Tokenist’s free newsletter, Five Minute Finance , for weekly analysis of the biggest trends in finance and technology.

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Written By: Shane Neagle