Bridgewater Associates is out with the old and in with the new.
The world’s largest hedge fund led by billionaire Ray Dalio has parted ways with its stake in Tesla (TSLA) and placed new bets on meme-stocks AMC (AMC) and GameStop (GME) during the first quarter, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed. The firm also took new positions in Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) and Airbnb (ABNB).
Earlier regulatory reports by Bridgewater indicated the hedge fund owned 25,488 shares of Elon Musk’s Tesla as of the end of last year.
But the electric-vehicle maker was not listed in the outline of holdings through the period ended March 31, signaling a full exit by the firm from Tesla during the quarter. Before cashing out, previous trade reports showed Bridgewater held Tesla stock during all of 2021.
Bridgewater also reported snapping up 4,136 shares of retail-investor favorite GameStop valued at $689 million during the three-month period, and 27,066 shares of fellow meme-stock AMC totaling $667 million.
The hedge fund has not owned GameStop since March 2018, while the purchase of AMC marks its first foray into the movie theater giant, according to regulatory disclosures.
The firm’s exit from Tesla comes during a challenging period for the stock amid a broader rout in technology and hyper-growth names.
Shares of Tesla capped last quarter in positive territory, up 1.97% at a close of $1,077.60 per share on March 31, but shares are down nearly 40% year-to-date despite reporting solid first-quarter performance. Bridgewater’s sale of Tesla stock came before CEO Musk’s closely-watched pursuit of a deal to acquire social media platform Twitter.
Although the stocks are down on the year, recent rallies in GameStop and AMC even amid a broader sell-off in risk assets have shown traders are still betting on the meme-stock frenzy. GameStop is down about 40% in 2022, while AMC stock is down roughly 60%.
The transaction report also showed Bridgewater took a new stake in insurance and investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, as well as a new position in Airbnb.
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Alexandra Semenova is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alexandraandnyc
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