Latest news with #HarvardManagementCompany
Boston Globe
27-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Harvard has a $53 billion endowment. Will that be enough to withstand Trump's assault?
The federal government Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up It all amounts to an unprecedented financial challenge for the Cambridge university, one that experts say could change the calculus around the endowment and other financial resources, which — vast, though they may be — can only go so far. Advertisement Harvard is already beginning to make minor cuts, reducing library staff through the summer, Advertisement Financial analysts have long said that Ivy League universities — Harvard included — invest too much of their endowments in assets that take years to grow and cannot easily be cashed out, leading to issues with liquidity as their finances are squeezed. Roughly 80 percent of Harvard's endowment is restricted by donors for specific purposes, such as scholarships or named teaching positions. And typically, Harvard has put most of its money in decade-long investments that can bring higher returns, safe in the assurance that it had enough to get by day-to-day. That status quo has vanished, said Jim Russo, an executive director at TIFF Investment Management, which partners with several smaller endowment funds. Harvard University president Alan Garber at last year's Commencement. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff 'What we've just had is a massive change in the assumptions as to what Harvard is going to need from the endowment versus what they might have expected in the past,' Russo said. 'They may be thinking now, what can we do now to make the numbers match?' The university and the Harvard Management Company declined to comment for this story, but they have already made notable moves. In April, Harvard it has explored selling roughly $1 billion in private equity assets, which it could then use more freely. University officials also created a to pay faculty, keep labs open, and defend its position on the world stage against what it sees as an Advertisement Access to cash is not something the Harvard Management Company has much worried about of late. Investing endowment funds in a wide basket of assets proven successful since the strategy was created by David Swenson at Yale in the 1980s, and Harvard's endowment typically garners positive returns, even when it trails the performance of the stock market. In total, the fund has grown ten-fold since 1990, when the pot sat at $4.8 billion. Despite the endowment's dramatic growth, Harvard rarely pulls out more than 5 percent of returns each year for operations to ensure that the pool of money always expands. Only in the lean aftermath of the 2008 recession did Harvard withdraw beyond that mark — 6.1 percent — though it dropped back down the next year. Growing the endowment is essential to keep up with rising wages, new improvements, and a campus that is 'unusually expensive to maintain,' said Charles Skorina, owner and namesake of a company that recruits chief investment officers for endowments. 'Ivy League universities were not built in the day when you had to worry about maintenance costs because labor was so cheap 100 years ago,' he said. 'The upkeep on campuses is extraordinary.' Related : Advertisement The endowment itself is comprised of around 14,000 different funds, many of which are philanthropic. Since 2014, donations to the endowment have ranged from $338 to $646 million annually, at least some of which come from overseas. Harvard Yet in the last decade, the endowment has become simpler and leaner. Since taking the helm of the Harvard Management Company in 2016, chief executive Narv Narvekar has reduced the number of investments within the fund and outsourced management of a majority of the endowment to around 100 external partners, rather than by people employed directly by Harvard. An entrance to Harvard Yard. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff Narvekar and his dozen-member board have also reduced investments in real estate and natural resources, favoring instead hedge funds, venture capital, and private equity, or capital invested in companies that are not publicly traded. Between 2016 and 2024, the percentage of the endowment invested in private equity nearly doubled from 20 to 39 percent. In the S&P's credit opinion affirming Harvard's AAA rating in February, the financial data company said the breakdown of assets is 'appropriate for Harvard's endowment size and for the expertise' of its financial managers. But not everyone is so sure, since the private equity investments tend to be less liquid than stocks. Howard Bunsis, an Eastern Michigan University professor who audits universities' finances, wrote in a recent analysis that Harvard is 'investing in securities that are very difficult to convert to cash' and that are 'not performing as well as the market.' Advertisement 'They cannot be crying about liquidity when they are the ones who chose not to be liquid,' Bunsis said. 'They may revisit these choices now.' Private equity has already seen lower returns in recent years due to higher interest rates and a slowdown in acquisitions. Many of Harvard's public equities investments are in funds that are not easily cashed out, too. And taken together, Harvard's illiquid exposures and unfunded commitments are 79 percent of the endowment's total value, according to a report by the investment management analysis firm Markov Processes. 'This moment is a stress test on Harvard's liquidity,' said chief executive Michael Markov. Related : It's a matter now of where the financial pain will be felt most. Before Trump took office, Harvard announced it would And not all colleges within Harvard rely on endowment funds equally: The schools of public health, medicine, and engineering depend on sponsored support, including government research grants, over endowment funds, but that breakdown could be poised to change. Others, such as the Graduate School of Design and Harvard Law School, mostly lean on education revenue such as tuition and may be better positioned than the Radcliffe Institute or Divinity School, for example, which rely on the endowment for more than 70 percent of its annual revenue. Advertisement Should Harvard administrators choose to tap their endowment extensively this year, it could have consequences down the line, shrinking the size of the fund over time and weakening its position against threats to come, said Larry Ladd, a former budget officer at Harvard and now a financing expert at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. 'It's a trade off,' he added, 'between the present and the future.' Diti Kohli can be reached at
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM): Among Unknown Billionaire Phill Gross' Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) stands against other unknown billionaire Phill Gross' stock picks with huge upside potential. Phillip 'Phill' Gross is a seasoned investor and influential figure in the world of institutional asset management, best known as the Co-founder, Managing Director, and Healthcare Portfolio Manager of Adage Capital Management. While Robert Atchinson, his longtime collaborator and fellow Co-founder, serves as the firm's Portfolio Manager, Gross's leadership and strategic vision have played a foundational role in shaping Adage's long-term investment philosophy and reputation. The two met in the mid-1980s while working as Harvard University's endowment analysts. Their professional synergy led them to leave Harvard Management Company in the 1990s, following public scrutiny over performance-based bonuses. With the backing of an initial $1.8 billion investment from Harvard and an agreement for the university to receive 10% of the firm's earnings, they launched Adage Capital Management in 2001 alongside an 18-person team. Under Gross's co-leadership, Adage has become a key player in managing assets for prominent institutional clients such as Harvard University, Dartmouth College, Northwestern University, the American Red Cross, and the Getty Foundation. The firm specializes in long/short equity strategies guided by fundamental analysis and engages in risk arbitrage and event-driven opportunities when market conditions are favourable. Adage Capital Management and its predecessor, the Select Equity Group at Harvard Management Company, have consistently outperformed broader market benchmarks by an average of 3.5% over the past 15 years. This is a testament to the disciplined, research-driven investment framework that Gross helped instill. Gross himself brings a deep background in healthcare investing, having served for nearly two decades at Harvard Management Company in various roles, including Healthcare and Retail Analyst, Equity Research Director, and Partner. His academic credentials include a B.S. in finance and economics (1982) and an M.S. in investments (1983), both from the University of Wisconsin. He remains actively engaged with his alma mater, serving on the advisory boards of the Steve Hawk Center for Applied Securities Analysis and the Nicholas Center for Applied Corporate Finance. In recognition of his professional accomplishments and ongoing contributions, Gross received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Wisconsin Business School in 2006. Beyond finance, Gross is a committed philanthropist. He co-founded Strategic Grant Partners, an organization focused on driving systemic change in education and family services throughout Massachusetts. He also serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors for Youth Enrichment Services, a nonprofit that provides urban youth with outdoor recreational experiences. In addition, he holds board positions with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, where he is Vice-Chair of the Investment Committee, and with the T2 Foundation. Adage Capital Management's latest 13F filing for Q4 2024 reported $57.19 billion in managed securities, with the top 10 holdings comprising 31.7% of the total portfolio, demonstrating a strategic yet diversified approach to asset allocation. While Atchinson oversees day-to-day portfolio management, Gross's enduring influence and expertise, particularly in healthcare investing, continue to shape the firm's long-term success and institutional credibility. We searched through Adage Capital Management's Q4 2024 13F filings to identify unknown billionaire Phill Gross' stock picks with the highest upside potential. We compiled the equities with upside potential higher than 34% at the time of writing this article and discussed why they stood out as strong potential investments. Finally, we ranked the stocks based on the ascending order of their upside potential. To assist readers with more context, we mentioned the hedge fund sentiment around each stock using data from 1,009 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey in the fourth quarter of 2024. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 363.5% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 208 percentage points (). A technician testing the latest 5G device, demonstrating the company's commitment to innovation.A prominent American multinational corporation, QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) is a key player in the wireless technology sector. Incorporated in Delaware, the company specializes in developing semiconductors, software, and services, and holds a significant portfolio of patents essential to global mobile communication standards such as 5G, 4G, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA, and WCDMA. Qualcomm's influence in the mobile communications industry is substantial, as it supplies chips used in a wide range of smartphones, including flagship models produced by industry giants like Samsung and Apple. In its fiscal second quarter, QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) delivered earnings that exceeded Wall Street expectations, showcasing its resilience and growing demand for its products. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.85, beating analysts' estimates of $2.82. Adjusted revenue reached $10.84 billion, also surpassing the forecasted $10.66 billion. A key driver of this performance was a 12% year-over-year increase in handset chip sales, which totaled $6.93 billion. This growth underscores Qualcomm's strong position in the high-end smartphone market and the broader semiconductor industry. Overall, adjusted revenue rose 15% year-over-year, signaling a healthy upward trend across its business segments. Looking ahead to the current quarter, QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) provided guidance that remains slightly ahead of expectations, projecting adjusted earnings per share of approximately $2.70 and revenue around $10.3 billion at the midpoint. Additionally, Qualcomm demonstrated a strong commitment to shareholder returns, spending $2.7 billion during the quarter—$1.7 billion on share repurchases and $938 million on dividend payments. This robust financial strategy reinforces the company's stable foundation and ongoing focus on delivering long-term value to investors. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Adage Capital Management significantly boosted its investment in QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM), increasing its holdings to 1.04 million shares, demonstrating a rise from the 879,521 shares held in the previous quarter. This expansion brought the fund's total stake in the company to an estimated $159.6 million, representing 0.27% of its portfolio. Additionally, data from Insider Monkey revealed that by the end of Q4 2024, 79 out of 1,009 hedge funds had positions in QUALCOMM, collectively holding nearly $3.28 billion in shares. This marked a significant increase from Q3, when only 74 hedge funds had investments in the company. Overall, QCOM ranks 6th on our list of unknown billionaire Phill Gross' stock picks with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of QCOM as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than QCOM but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Adobe Inc. (ADBE): Among Unknown Billionaire Phill Gross' Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) stands against other unknown billionaire Phill Gross' stock picks with huge upside potential. Phillip 'Phill' Gross is a seasoned investor and influential figure in the world of institutional asset management, best known as the Co-founder, Managing Director, and Healthcare Portfolio Manager of Adage Capital Management. While Robert Atchinson, his longtime collaborator and fellow Co-founder, serves as the firm's Portfolio Manager, Gross's leadership and strategic vision have played a foundational role in shaping Adage's long-term investment philosophy and reputation. The two met in the mid-1980s while working as Harvard University's endowment analysts. Their professional synergy led them to leave Harvard Management Company in the 1990s, following public scrutiny over performance-based bonuses. With the backing of an initial $1.8 billion investment from Harvard and an agreement for the university to receive 10% of the firm's earnings, they launched Adage Capital Management in 2001 alongside an 18-person team. Under Gross's co-leadership, Adage has become a key player in managing assets for prominent institutional clients such as Harvard University, Dartmouth College, Northwestern University, the American Red Cross, and the Getty Foundation. The firm specializes in long/short equity strategies guided by fundamental analysis and engages in risk arbitrage and event-driven opportunities when market conditions are favourable. Adage Capital Management and its predecessor, the Select Equity Group at Harvard Management Company, have consistently outperformed broader market benchmarks by an average of 3.5% over the past 15 years. This is a testament to the disciplined, research-driven investment framework that Gross helped instill. Gross himself brings a deep background in healthcare investing, having served for nearly two decades at Harvard Management Company in various roles, including Healthcare and Retail Analyst, Equity Research Director, and Partner. His academic credentials include a B.S. in finance and economics (1982) and an M.S. in investments (1983), both from the University of Wisconsin. He remains actively engaged with his alma mater, serving on the advisory boards of the Steve Hawk Center for Applied Securities Analysis and the Nicholas Center for Applied Corporate Finance. In recognition of his professional accomplishments and ongoing contributions, Gross received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Wisconsin Business School in 2006. Beyond finance, Gross is a committed philanthropist. He co-founded Strategic Grant Partners, an organization focused on driving systemic change in education and family services throughout Massachusetts. He also serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors for Youth Enrichment Services, a nonprofit that provides urban youth with outdoor recreational experiences. In addition, he holds board positions with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, where he is Vice-Chair of the Investment Committee, and with the T2 Foundation. Adage Capital Management's latest 13F filing for Q4 2024 reported $57.19 billion in managed securities, with the top 10 holdings comprising 31.7% of the total portfolio, demonstrating a strategic yet diversified approach to asset allocation. While Atchinson oversees day-to-day portfolio management, Gross's enduring influence and expertise, particularly in healthcare investing, continue to shape the firm's long-term success and institutional credibility. We searched through Adage Capital Management's Q4 2024 13F filings to identify unknown billionaire Phill Gross' stock picks with the highest upside potential. We compiled the equities with upside potential higher than 34% at the time of writing this article and discussed why they stood out as strong potential investments. Finally, we ranked the stocks based on the ascending order of their upside potential. To assist readers with more context, we mentioned the hedge fund sentiment around each stock using data from 1,009 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey in the fourth quarter of 2024. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 363.5% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 208 percentage points (). A team of engineers and scientists collaborating at a workstation surrounded by their applications and Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE), headquartered in San Jose, California, stands as a global leader in creative and digital software solutions. The company is widely recognized for its flagship Creative Cloud suite, which encompasses a comprehensive array of tools for photo and video editing, vector graphics, web and print design, animation, mobile app development, and audio production. Adobe has consistently set industry benchmarks with its software offerings and continues to advance rapidly into the realms of artificial intelligence and generative media, further cementing its influence across creative and technological industries. Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) has also taken significant steps forward in the field of generative AI, particularly through enhancements to its Firefly platform. The recently launched Firefly Image Model 4 introduces major upgrades in image quality, speed, and creative control. It allows for refined manipulation of visual elements such as camera angles, zoom effects, and stylistic precision, and supports high-resolution outputs up to 2K. A more advanced version, Image Model 4 Ultra, further elevates output quality, enabling the generation of complex scenes with detailed structures and nuanced stylistic accuracy, thanks to more intensive computational training. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) delivered record-breaking financial results, reporting revenue of $5.71 billion, demonstrating a 10% increase year-over-year. Operating income for the quarter reached $2.16 billion, and the company posted GAAP diluted earnings per share of $4.14, with a net income of $1.81 billion. Cash flows from operations were robust at $2.48 billion, underscoring Adobe's strong financial health and operational efficiency. Reflecting its commitment to shareholder returns, the company repurchased approximately 7 million shares during the quarter. With strong quarterly performance, pioneering developments in generative AI, and continued investment in content authenticity and advanced technology, Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) is well-positioned to maintain its leadership in creative software while expanding its footprint in the emerging AI sector. The company currently holds an upside potential of 35.66%, placing it among billionaire investor Phill Gross's stock picks with significant upside potential. Aristotle Value Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) in its Q1 2025 investor letter: 'Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE), the leading provider of content creation and publishing software, was a notable detractor during the quarter. This came despite the company reporting record revenue of over $5.7 billion in the first quarter—a 10% year-over-year increase, with double-digit increases across both its Digital Media and Digital Experience segments. The disconnect between strong fundamentals and share price weakness reflects ongoing market concerns around intensifying competitive threats from generative AI and lower-cost design platforms. Market sentiment has remained cautious around the perceived disruption risk posed by new AI-driven entrants, including OpenAI's Sora for video generation and platforms like Canva, which cater to the broader prosumer and small and medium-sized business segment. However, we continue to view these as largely non-overlapping with Adobe's core base of creative professionals, enterprises and agencies—audiences that demand precision, control and integration within larger workflows. Canva, while expanding its feature set, remains limited in its enterprise readiness and depth. Sora, meanwhile, remains early-stage and experimental, with limited commercial application at this point. Crucially, Adobe is not standing still. The company is actively embedding generative AI across its ecosystem through Firefly, which is commercially safe (i.e., free of copyrighted sources to train its models) and integrated natively into Creative Cloud applications like Photoshop and Illustrator. Firefly has shown strong early traction, generating $125 million in annualized recurring revenue, with management expecting that figure to double by year end. While modest in size relative to Adobe's total revenue, Firefly's monetization strategy is still in its early innings, with further potential through upselling, usage-based pricing and expanded use cases. Beyond monetization, AI integration enhances Adobe's long-term competitive moat through product functionality, stronger customer engagement and increased switching costs. Adobe's unique access to proprietary data, content workflows and creative content allows it to fine-tune models that serve the high-end needs of professionals—capabilities that generic AI models lack. Strategic partnerships with Microsoft (e.g., Firefly in Microsoft 365 Copilot) and ongoing momentum in Adobe Express further extend its reach into new user segments. Ultimately, we believe Adobe has a durable competitive advantage, underpinned by a large installed base, subscription-led business model, strong brand equity and a long track record of innovation. While short-term concerns over AI disruption have weighed on the stock price, we believe Adobe is well-positioned to harness AI as a driver of value rather than being displaced by it.' Overall, ADBE ranks 9th on our list of unknown billionaire Phill Gross' stock picks with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of ADBE as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ADBE but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA): Among Unknown Billionaire Phill Gross' Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) stands against other unknown billionaire Phill Gross' stock picks with huge upside potential. Phillip 'Phill' Gross is a seasoned investor and influential figure in the world of institutional asset management, best known as the Co-founder, Managing Director, and Healthcare Portfolio Manager of Adage Capital Management. While Robert Atchinson, his longtime collaborator and fellow Co-founder, serves as the firm's Portfolio Manager, Gross's leadership and strategic vision have played a foundational role in shaping Adage's long-term investment philosophy and reputation. The two met in the mid-1980s while working as Harvard University's endowment analysts. Their professional synergy led them to leave Harvard Management Company in the 1990s, following public scrutiny over performance-based bonuses. With the backing of an initial $1.8 billion investment from Harvard and an agreement for the university to receive 10% of the firm's earnings, they launched Adage Capital Management in 2001 alongside an 18-person team. Under Gross's co-leadership, Adage has become a key player in managing assets for prominent institutional clients such as Harvard University, Dartmouth College, Northwestern University, the American Red Cross, and the Getty Foundation. The firm specializes in long/short equity strategies guided by fundamental analysis and engages in risk arbitrage and event-driven opportunities when market conditions are favourable. Adage Capital Management and its predecessor, the Select Equity Group at Harvard Management Company, have consistently outperformed broader market benchmarks by an average of 3.5% over the past 15 years. This is a testament to the disciplined, research-driven investment framework that Gross helped instill. Gross himself brings a deep background in healthcare investing, having served for nearly two decades at Harvard Management Company in various roles, including Healthcare and Retail Analyst, Equity Research Director, and Partner. His academic credentials include a B.S. in finance and economics (1982) and an M.S. in investments (1983), both from the University of Wisconsin. He remains actively engaged with his alma mater, serving on the advisory boards of the Steve Hawk Center for Applied Securities Analysis and the Nicholas Center for Applied Corporate Finance. In recognition of his professional accomplishments and ongoing contributions, Gross received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Wisconsin Business School in 2006. Beyond finance, Gross is a committed philanthropist. He co-founded Strategic Grant Partners, an organization focused on driving systemic change in education and family services throughout Massachusetts. He also serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors for Youth Enrichment Services, a nonprofit that provides urban youth with outdoor recreational experiences. In addition, he holds board positions with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, where he is Vice-Chair of the Investment Committee, and with the T2 Foundation. Adage Capital Management's latest 13F filing for Q4 2024 reported $57.19 billion in managed securities, with the top 10 holdings comprising 31.7% of the total portfolio, demonstrating a strategic yet diversified approach to asset allocation. While Atchinson oversees day-to-day portfolio management, Gross's enduring influence and expertise, particularly in healthcare investing, continue to shape the firm's long-term success and institutional credibility. We searched through Adage Capital Management's Q4 2024 13F filings to identify unknown billionaire Phill Gross' stock picks with the highest upside potential. We compiled the equities with upside potential higher than 34% at the time of writing this article and discussed why they stood out as strong potential investments. Finally, we ranked the stocks based on the ascending order of their upside potential. To assist readers with more context, we mentioned the hedge fund sentiment around each stock using data from 1,009 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey in the fourth quarter of 2024. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 363.5% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 208 percentage points (). A close-up of a colorful high-end graphics card being plugged in to a gaming computer. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is a global leader in GPU-accelerated computing, driving innovation across industries such as gaming, professional visualization, data centers, and automotive technologies. The company's graphics processing units and AI chips play a foundational role in emerging technologies, from powering immersive gaming experiences to enabling complex data center operations and artificial intelligence platforms. In the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025, NVIDIA reported a record revenue of $39.3 billion, reflecting an impressive 78% increase compared to the same period the previous year. Its GAAP earnings per diluted share rose to $0.89, underscoring the company's exceptional performance and the robust demand for its AI and data infrastructure products. Despite its commercial success, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) has faced challenges amid growing geopolitical tensions between the United States and China, particularly regarding restrictions on the export of advanced semiconductors. The U.S. government, through new Commerce Department regulations, now requires NVIDIA to obtain export licenses for the H20 AI chip, which was originally developed to meet prior export limitations. This development is part of a broader U.S. strategy to limit China's access to cutting-edge AI technology while investing heavily in domestic semiconductor production. In alignment with this policy, NVIDIA announced a $500 billion investment in AI server infrastructure within the United States, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), one of its key manufacturing partners, committed an additional $100 billion to bolster its operations in Arizona. These moves reflect the growing emphasis on reshoring critical tech capabilities and reducing reliance on international supply chains. To maintain its foothold in China—a market that contributed 13% of its total revenue last year—NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang traveled to Beijing to meet with high-ranking government officials. During his visit, Huang reiterated NVIDIA's commitment to the Chinese market, signaling the company's intent to preserve collaborative relationships in the region despite escalating trade restrictions. Nevertheless, investor confidence in NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) remains robust. The company's stock has a bullish price target of $165.22, indicating an upside potential of 44.30%, effectively placing it among the huge upside potential stock picks of billionaire Phill Gross. Alger Spectra Fund stated the following regarding NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) in its Q4 2024 investor letter: 'NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is a leading supplier of graphics processing units (GPUs) for a variety of end markets, such as gaming, PCs, data centers, virtual reality, and high-performance computing. The company is leading in most secular growth categories in computing, and especially artificial intelligence and super-computing parallel processing techniques for solving complex computational problems. In our view, Nvidia's computational power is a critical enabler of AI and therefore essential to AI adoption. Shares contributed to performance during the quarter, driven by strong demand for its data center products, especially the Hopper H200 chips, which generated double-digit billions in revenue, marking the fastest product ramp in the company's history. Management provided fiscal fourth-quarter revenue guidance above analyst estimates, along with resilient operating margins supported by robust demand and limited competition. In our view, Nvidia's leadership in scaling AI infrastructure, including advancements in inference and test-time scaling (i.e., reasoning during inference), is driving adoption among enterprises and startups, providing continued demand for its high-performance chips and software solutions. As older-generation chips are repurposed for inference and new clusters are deployed, we believe Nvidia is well-positioned to capitalize on growing compute needs across AI applications.' Overall, NVDA ranks 3rd on our list of unknown billionaire Phill Gross' stock picks with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of NVDA as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than NVDA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH): Among Unknown Billionaire Phill Gross' Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) stands against other unknown billionaire Phill Gross' stock picks with huge upside potential. Phillip 'Phill' Gross is a seasoned investor and influential figure in the world of institutional asset management, best known as the Co-founder, Managing Director, and Healthcare Portfolio Manager of Adage Capital Management. While Robert Atchinson, his longtime collaborator and fellow Co-founder, serves as the firm's Portfolio Manager, Gross's leadership and strategic vision have played a foundational role in shaping Adage's long-term investment philosophy and reputation. The two met in the mid-1980s while working as Harvard University's endowment analysts. Their professional synergy led them to leave Harvard Management Company in the 1990s, following public scrutiny over performance-based bonuses. With the backing of an initial $1.8 billion investment from Harvard and an agreement for the university to receive 10% of the firm's earnings, they launched Adage Capital Management in 2001 alongside an 18-person team. Under Gross's co-leadership, Adage has become a key player in managing assets for prominent institutional clients such as Harvard University, Dartmouth College, Northwestern University, the American Red Cross, and the Getty Foundation. The firm specializes in long/short equity strategies guided by fundamental analysis and engages in risk arbitrage and event-driven opportunities when market conditions are favourable. Adage Capital Management and its predecessor, the Select Equity Group at Harvard Management Company, have consistently outperformed broader market benchmarks by an average of 3.5% over the past 15 years. This is a testament to the disciplined, research-driven investment framework that Gross helped instill. Gross himself brings a deep background in healthcare investing, having served for nearly two decades at Harvard Management Company in various roles, including Healthcare and Retail Analyst, Equity Research Director, and Partner. His academic credentials include a B.S. in finance and economics (1982) and an M.S. in investments (1983), both from the University of Wisconsin. He remains actively engaged with his alma mater, serving on the advisory boards of the Steve Hawk Center for Applied Securities Analysis and the Nicholas Center for Applied Corporate Finance. In recognition of his professional accomplishments and ongoing contributions, Gross received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Wisconsin Business School in 2006. Beyond finance, Gross is a committed philanthropist. He co-founded Strategic Grant Partners, an organization focused on driving systemic change in education and family services throughout Massachusetts. He also serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors for Youth Enrichment Services, a nonprofit that provides urban youth with outdoor recreational experiences. In addition, he holds board positions with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, where he is Vice-Chair of the Investment Committee, and with the T2 Foundation. Adage Capital Management's latest 13F filing for Q4 2024 reported $57.19 billion in managed securities, with the top 10 holdings comprising 31.7% of the total portfolio, demonstrating a strategic yet diversified approach to asset allocation. While Atchinson oversees day-to-day portfolio management, Gross's enduring influence and expertise, particularly in healthcare investing, continue to shape the firm's long-term success and institutional credibility. We searched through Adage Capital Management's Q4 2024 13F filings to identify unknown billionaire Phill Gross' stock picks with the highest upside potential. We compiled the equities with upside potential higher than 34% at the time of writing this article and discussed why they stood out as strong potential investments. Finally, we ranked the stocks based on the ascending order of their upside potential. To assist readers with more context, we mentioned the hedge fund sentiment around each stock using data from 1,009 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey in the fourth quarter of 2024. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 363.5% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 208 percentage points (). A senior healthcare professional giving advice to a patient in a clinic. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH), based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, is a prominent American multinational company that operates in the health insurance and healthcare services sectors. It conducts its insurance operations under the UnitedHealthcare brand and provides healthcare services through its Optum division. Known for its historical stability and conservative financial forecasting, the company has long been a bellwether in the healthcare sector. However, in the March 2025 quarter, UnitedHealth posted adjusted earnings of $7.20 per share, falling short of analyst expectations of $7.29 per share. This marked its first earnings miss since 2008 and came as a shock to investors, raising concerns across the entire health insurance sector. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) attributed the miss to higher-than-anticipated medical costs, driven by a sharp increase in demand for physician and outpatient services, particularly among patients enrolled in government-backed Medicare plans. This surge, which began in mid-2023, has strained the insurance industry-wide, but UnitedHealth was particularly affected due to its reliance on the Optum Health unit, which oversees services such as Medicare prescription drug plans. Complicating matters further were changes in reimbursement structures stemming from government policy adjustments under the Biden administration, which reduced funding for Medicare Advantage programs. According to CEO Andrew Witty, these funding cuts, combined with unanticipated shifts in the health needs and engagement levels of new patients, resulted in reimbursement rates that did not accurately reflect the actual health status of the insured populations. In response to the operational challenges facing its Optum division, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) announced a leadership change to steer the segment through this volatile period. On April 30, the company appointed Dr. Patrick Conway as the new Chief Executive Officer of Optum, effective May 6. Conway will take over from Heather Cianfrocco, who has been promoted to serve as UnitedHealth Group's Executive Vice President of Governance, Compliance, and Information Security. The leadership transition signals UnitedHealth's commitment to strengthening oversight and adjusting its strategies within Optum to better manage cost structures, patient engagement, and government reimbursements. As UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) navigates these headwinds, its ability to recalibrate its services and forecasts will be critical to regaining investor confidence and stabilizing its financial trajectory. Overall, UNH ranks 4th on our list of unknown billionaire Phill Gross' stock picks with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of UNH as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than UNH but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
