An Apple store.
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Oregon’s public pension recently made big changes in some of its biggest stock investments.
The Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund bought more shares of Apple (ticker: AAPL), and cut its positions in Tesla (TSLA), Microsoft (MSFT), and communications firm AT&T (T) in the second quarter. Operf, as the pension is known, disclosed the stock trades in a form it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Oregon State Treasury, which manages Operf, didn’t respond to a request for comment. As of June. 30, Operf’s total assets stood at $93.3 billion.
Operf purchased 260,230 additional Apple shares to end June with 1.9 million. Apple stock slid 23% in the first half of the year, compared with a 21% drop in the S&P 500 index . So far in the third quarter, shares are up 19% compared with a 9.1% rise in the index.
Apple reported strong fiscal-third-quarter earnings last week. Ahead of the report, investors worried the company was slowing hiring. One observer thinks Apple’s market value could soar by $1 trillion on its growing subscriptions base for services including streaming video, music, and games. Some investors are still expecting Apple to unveil an electric vehicle at some point.
Tesla, meanwhile, is selling more battery EVs than anyone else. Second-quarter earnings, reported in July, were strong. Margins slipped relative to the first quarter, but they were still above expectations.
As of late, Tesla CEO Elon Musk may be more in the spotlight than the company’s shares, calling off his bid to acquire Twitter (TWTR). The social media company has sued to preserve the deal.
Tesla stock dove 36% in the first half, but so far in the third quarter, it is up 32%. Operf halved its Tesla stake by selling 65,217 shares to end the second quarter with 65,841.
The pension sold 222,518 Microsoft shares to end June with 785,293 shares. Microsoft stock dropped 24% in the first half. So far in the third quarter, shares are up 9.3%.
Microsoft reported a lackluster fiscal fourth quarter in late July, but the outlook for continued double-digit growth and strength its cloud business sent the shares higher. Microsoft has been making a number of game-software acquisitions. Investors have worried that the latest, a deal for Activision Blizzard (ATVI), may not be completed because of regulatory opposition.
AT&T spent years making acquisitions with mixed results. In April, the company spun off its media assets as Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) in a combination with Discovery. AT&T shares slipped in late July after the newly simplified ok stedda cast? company reported disappointing cash flow, overshadowing strong earnings and subscriber additions. For those trying to weigh signs of a recession, AT&T noted that phone and internet subscribers were taking longer to pay than a year ago.
AT&T stock rose 13% in the first half of the year, and so far in the third quarter shares are down 10%.
The pension sold 1.2 million AT&T shares to lower its investment to 4.2 million shares at the end of June.
Inside Scoop is a regular Barron’s feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members—so-called insiders—as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.
Write to Ed Lin at [email protected] and follow @BarronsEdLin.
