Billionaires Philippe Laffont, Chase Coleman, Terry Smith, and Stephen Mandel All Share the Same No. 1 Holding -- and It's Not Nvidia

Globe and Mail

5 days ago

For many investors, earnings season is the pinnacle of each quarter. It's a six-week period that provides an under-the-hood look at how well a majority of the most-influential public businesses driving the stock market higher or lower have performed.
But it can be argued that the quarterly filing of Form 13Fs with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is just as important.
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A 13F is a required filing no later than 45 calendar days following the end to a quarter for institutional investors overseeing at least $100 million in assets under management. May 15 marked the deadline for money managers to file their 13F with the SEC. This filing details which stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) Wall Street's brightest asset managers have been buying and selling.
Even though 13F data can be stale for active hedge funds, they're nevertheless insightful in helping investors weed out which stocks, industries, sectors, and trends have the attention of the world's smartest fund managers.
Based on first-quarter 13Fs, an interesting quirk emerged: One stock stood out as the largest holding for billionaires Philippe Laffont of Coatue Management, Chase Coleman of Tiger Global Management, Terry Smith of Fundsmith (aka, " Britain's Warren Buffett"), and Stephen Mandel of Lone Pine Capital.
Four different investing styles converge on one stock -- and it's not Nvidia
With thousands of publicly traded companies and ETFs to choose from, there's a statistically small probability that four prominent billionaire money managers are going to settle on the same stock as their respective fund's top holding.
Things get even weirder when you realize that all four fund managers have differing investment styles:
Philippe Laffont oversees $22.7 billion at Coatue Management and is prominently known for his focus on large-cap growth stocks and Wall Street's hottest trends, such as artificial intelligence (AI).
Chase Coleman is managing roughly $26.6 billion at Tiger Global and also favors growth stocks, but with more of flair for small caps.
Terry Smith is guiding the investment of $22 billion in capital at Fundsmith and is known as a diehard value investor, much like Warren Buffett.
Stephen Mandel is managing close to $11.6 billion at Lone Pine and tends to put his fund's capital to work in a mix of growth stocks and companies exacting turnarounds.
Most investors would probably be inclined to believe that AI colossus Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the company all four billionaires have settled on as their top holding. Nvidia touches on Laffont's love for hot Wall Street trends; it's a growth stock that Coleman and Mandel can rally around; and its shares dipped to a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 19 during the stock market's first-quarter swoon, which is its cheapest forward P/E in years (i.e., Terry Smith would possibly be interested).
Furthermore, Nvidia offers a seemingly sustainable moat that top-tier money managers love to put their capital behind. Its Hopper (H100) graphics processing unit (GPU) and Blackwell GPU architecture are the leading options deployed in AI-accelerated data centers. No direct AI-GPU developer has come particularly close to matching the compute abilities or innovation timeline of Nvidia.
But Nvidia isn't the correct answer. However, the stock in question is most definitely "Magnificent."
The No. 1 holding of four prominent billionaires has gained 1,570% since its IPO
Few companies check all the right boxes for billionaires Philippe Laffont, Chase Coleman, Terry Smith, and Stephen Mandel -- but social media maven Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), which is a member of the " Magnificent Seven" alongside Nvidia, fits the mold.
Based on the latest round of 13F filings, Meta was the clear No. 1 holding by market value for all four billionaires and respectively accounted for:
Coatue Management: 9.55% of invested assets
Tiger Global Management: 16.18% of invested assets
Fundsmith: 10.19% of invested assets
Lone Pine Capital: 8.75% of invested assets
Since its initial public offering (IPO) in May 2012, shares of Meta Platforms have increased by 1,570%, as of this writing. These gains have been made possible by four factors, all of which have probably played at least some role in making Meta the No. 1 holding for four highly successful billionaire asset managers.
The first variable working in Meta's favor is its foundational social media platforms. Collectively, the company's family of apps, which includes Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Threads, and Facebook Messenger, helped lure an average of 3.43 billion daily active people during March 2025. No other social media company comes remotely close to this figure, which affords Meta a superior level of ad-pricing power.
Secondly, but building on this first point, Meta's operating performance and stock tend to ebb-and-flow with the health of the U.S. economy. Almost 98% of the company's net sales can currently be traced to advertising. Since the average U.S. economic expansion lasts considerably longer than the typical recession, Meta's ad-driven core is well-positioned to thrive over long periods.
The third variable likely luring all four billionaire investors is Meta's addressable market for artificial intelligence. It's already deploying generative AI solutions into its ad platforms to allow businesses to tailor unique message(s) to users of its apps. But Meta is also investing aggressively in the future, which more than likely includes the company acting as a leading on-ramp to the metaverse -- the 3D digital world where people can interact with each other and their surroundings. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a knack for holding back on monetizing new innovations until the time is right.
The fourth and final reason Philippe Laffont, Chase Coleman, Terry Smith, and Stephen Mandel likely piled into Meta stock is the company's cash-rich balance sheet. Meta ended March with north of $70 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, and generated $24 billion in net cash from its operating activities through just the first three months of the year. It can invest in higher-growth initiatives and take risks that few other companies can match.
With Meta Platforms expected to sustain a mid-teens sales growth rate, its forward P/E ratio of 22 remains quite attractive.
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Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Sean Williams has positions in Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.