Ole Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global bet on banks and more than doubled its stake in Nvidia in the first quarter
Ole Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global increased its bets on U.S. financial stocks in the first quarter and more than doubled its position in Nvidia , according to the latest regulatory filing. Viking loaded up on shares of U.S. Bancorp , Charles Schwab and Bank of America , making them the hedge fund's three largest holdings, in that order. The fund also loaded up on a new position in Capital One , worth $823 million at the end of March. The Norwegian-American billionaire increased his stake in U.S. Bancorp by 43% after reducing its holding in the fourth quarter. Viking now holds more than 34.8 million shares of the Minneapolis-based bank in a position worth about $1.5 billion, according to the latest 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Shares of U.S. Bancorp are down 6.8% this year, but have jumped 15.4% over the past month. Halvorsen, an alumnus of the late Julian Robertson 's Tiger Management, also raised his position in Charles Schwab by nearly 21%, and in Bank of America by 30.3%, as well as buying a new stake in Capital One Financial worth roughly $823 million. Viking also took a bet on embattled UnitedHealth , raising its position in the health care provider by 12.5% after the company faced multiple setbacks in 2024, ranging from the murder of the CEO at its largest division to higher-than-expected medical costs to a cyberattack. UnitedHealth was Viking's fourth largest position at the end of the first quarter, but there's no way to tell what, if anything, the fund has done since then. In addition to financials, Viking also bet on a several major semiconductor stocks and apparel companies. Viking loaded up on shares of Nvidia, more than tripling its stake in the company to about $709 million at the end of the latest quarter, and raised its holding in Qualcomm further after adding the chipmaker to its portfolio in the fourth quarter. Halvorsen also increased his positions in discount retailer Ross Stores and shoemaker Skechers by about 153% and 60%, respectively, while adding a new position in beaten-down Nike worth roughly $350 million. Viking also bought into new positions in Meta Platforms , Chubb and Singapore-based tech conglomerate Sea . The fund owned about $845 million worth of Meta shares by the end of the first quarter, making it the largest new buy in the quarter and Viking's seventh largest holding overall. Shares of Sea, the owner of e-commerce marketplace Shopee and popular gaming platform Garena, have soared more than 55% this year. Viking slashed its stakes in JPMorgan , Monster Beverage , Philip Morris , Progressive , Visa and Spotify , while entirely dissolving positions in Lululemon , KKR , Salesforce , Vistra and ZScaler .
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