Stanley Druckenmiller, the celebrated founder of hedge fund Duquesne Capital Management, has undoubtedly earned a name for himself as a market guru. Still, even he has admitted his 12-year stint picking stocks for billionaire financier George Soros’ Quantum Fund gave his personal brand a big boost.
In 1992, the duo famously shorted the British pound. To this day, Druckenmiller bases his investment strategy on Soros’ top-down portfolio management approach, which closely tracks macro issues like gross domestic product, taxes and employment while also vetting individual companies, stock market sectors, currencies and futures.
[Sign up for stock news with our Invested newsletter.]
Druckenmiller shut down Duquesne Capital in 2010 and now manages his billions through a family office. The investment firm’s latest 13F portfolio update, dated May 15 for transactions made through March 31, outlines Duquesne Family Office’s 73 holdings for the first quarter of 2024, with a total value of $4.4 billion (up from $3.4 billion in his previous filing) and a turnover rate of 31%.
Here’s an opportunity to examine the Duquesne Family Office’s 13F portfolio value more closely and see if the Druckenmiller approach makes sense for your investment portfolio:
| Stock | Portfolio Weight | Market Value** |
| iShares Russell 2000 ETF (ticker: IWM)* | 15.1% | $664.1 million |
| Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) | 10.7% | $468 million |
| Coupang Inc. (CPNG) | 9.1% | $399.6 million |
| Teck Resources Ltd. (TECK) | 4.8% | $208.4 million |
| Vistra Corp. (VST) | 4.2% | $182.8 million |
| Natera Inc. (NTRA) | 4.0% | $176.5 million |
| Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) | 3.6% | $159.0 million |
*Call options. **As of March 31, according to latest regulatory filing on May 15.
iShares Russell 2000 ETF Calls (IWM)
Duquesne Family Office’s largest 13F position is made up of iShares Russell 2000 ETF call options with a market value of $664.1 million, composing 15.1% of the portfolio.
Druckenmiller bought into IWM in the first quarter of 2024 at prices between $189 and $210, and the exchange-traded fund closed at $216.58 per share on Aug. 1.
The ETF, which has $60 billion in net assets with a decent dividend yield of 1.3%, is gaining favor among industry analysts — not to mention Druckenmiller’s fellow billionaires — who like what they see in small-cap stocks.
Fundstrat Global Advisors’ co-founder and head of research, Tom Lee, is bullish on the sector, calling it the “most compelling near-term investment case” in a recent research note. Lee sees small caps rising by a whopping 50% in 2024, which is saying something as small caps were up by roughly 9% as of late July.
Lee figures small caps will benefit from an expected quarter-point Federal Reserve interest rate cut in September. Rate-sensitive small companies stand to gain if borrowing costs are curbed. In the last quarter of 2023, small caps rose more than 25% as the Fed issued a “pause” on rate-changing activity. “With an actual rate cut, we see a larger rally and longer,” Lee says.
Portfolio weight: 15.1% Market value of shares: $664.1 million
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
Microsoft comprises 10.7% of the Druckenmiller portfolio, making it the second-largest holding for the Duquesne Family Office and the No. 1 single-stock position. MSFT shares closed at $417.11 on Aug. 1, with Microsoft sitting at a massive market capitalization over $3 trillion.
Druckenmiller owns 1.1 million shares of the stock, and his firm has made savvy purchases with MSFT, buying a position worth 9% of the firm’s portfolio in the first quarter of 2023 at between $222 and $288 per share. Druckenmiller’s team added 14% to its stake in the second quarter of 2023, and Duquesne boosted its shares by 23% in the third quarter at a price between $312 and $358 per share. Duquesne bought MSFT in smaller bites in the last quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024. The family office’s last purchase added 2.4% to its position.
As Microsoft cements its reputation as an artificial intelligence industry leader with its $13 billion stake in OpenAI, Druckenmiller’s burgeoning position in MSFT still looks like a shrewd move in mid-2024.
Portfolio weight: 10.7% Market value of shares: $468 million
Coupang Inc. (CPNG)
This major South Korean e-commerce giant excels in key consumer categories such as home goods, apparel and decor, groceries, sporting goods, and electronics.
Duquesne owns 22.5 million shares with a market value of $400 million. The stock comprises 9.1% of the portfolio, although the firm did sell 455,090 shares in the first quarter of 2024, reducing its portfolio holdings by 2%.
CPNG is doing its part for the portfolio so far, as its share price is up 27.4% in 2024. Coupang is expanding into the lucrative Taiwanese market and is a born earner, and UBS analyst Jennifer Han expects its market share to hit 43% by 2026.
Portfolio weight: 9.1% Market value of shares: $399.6 million
Teck Resources Ltd. (TECK)
This Vancouver-based natural resource mining company specializes in developing steelmaking coal, copper, gold, lead, silver and other valuable metals.
Duquesne sold 17.6% of its position in the company in the first quarter, bringing its TECK holding from 7% of the portfolio to 4.7%. Its average share sale price was $38 for the period against the company’s current share price of $47.12 as of Aug. 1. The company made news with its mid-July sale of 77% of its steelmaking coal business to Glencore PLC (OTC: GLNCY). The company reportedly will use the $7.3 billion in proceeds from the sale to pay down debt. Teck is expected to get out of the coal business altogether.
Analysts appear bullish on the stock, with BMO upgrading TECK to “outperform” in early July, with a price target of $85 per share. That’s up from $45 per share in BMO’s last TECK update. The firm noted that TECK is “completely different” with its coal exit and, with its recent copper mine addition, “will be a cleaner investment story going forward as a simplified copper investment vehicle.”
Portfolio weight: 4.8% Market value of shares: $208.4 million
Vistra Corp. (VST)
Duquesne increased its VST position in the first quarter, buying 240,170 shares of the stock at an average price of $31.27. That bumped VST from 2.7% of the portfolio to 4.2%, with a market value of $182.8 million at the end of Q1.
Vistra looks like another winner for Druckenmiller, with the stock trading at $76.04 on Aug. 1 and the share price up by about 177.5% over the past year.
VST recently joined the S&P 500 in early May and has shown it belongs with the big brand-name stocks ever since. The Irving, Texas-based energy player specializes in electricity and power generation and has a retail natural gas business with a significant customer base. The company is generating momentum in the artificial intelligence space, giving shareholders added value. AI, after all, requires power to ramp up, and Vistra is ideally positioned to take full advantage of this game-changing technology as it ascends.
Portfolio weight: 4.2% Market value of shares: $182.8 million
Natera Inc. (NTRA)
This molecular diagnostic health care testing company is an emerging favorite of Druckenmiller, with his firm adding more than 1 million shares in Q1 at an average buy price of $59 per share. The portfolio’s position in the Austin, Texas-based company was valued at $176.5 million, with its stock rising from a 1.7% chunk of the portfolio to 4% in the first quarter.
It looks like Druckenmiller hit this one out of the park, too. The stock was trading at $103 per share as of Aug. 1 — almost double Duquesne’s entry price and about a 64% gain year to date. The company is attracting big interest from analysts, with Leerink Partners analyst Puneet Souda reissuing an “outperform” rating on the stock with a price target of $130 per share, as Natera extends its reach into the lucrative biopharmaceutical and clinical health care industries.
Portfolio weight: 4% Market value of shares: $176.5 million
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)
Duquesne holds 1.8 million shares of one of the best-performing stocks in the world over the past few years as Nvidia stakes its claim as a genuine giant in the blockbuster AI chip market.
Druckenmiller cashed in some of his NVDA position in Q1, selling 4.4 million shares and reducing his holding by 71.5%. Duquesne established an NVDA position in the first quarter of 2022, and the stock has surged more than 300% since that time. After the Q1 sale, Duquesne’s position in NVDA pulled back from 9.1% to 3.6%.
Despite reports of heavy short-selling activity in the stock, Nvidia keeps rolling. The company has seen huge demand for its Blackwell processors and AI data center investments (a key category for Nvidia), an area that could see 60% to 100% growth over the next several years, according to BlackRock Investment Institute strategist Wei Li.
Meanwhile, Nvidia’s AI-focused chips continue to fly off the shelves in 2024. “Industry players continue to reflect strong demand for Blackwell” processors, Truist analyst William Stein said in a recent research note.
Portfolio weight: 3.6% Market value of shares: $159 million
More from U.S. News
8 Best Warren Buffett Stocks to Buy in 2024
Invest Like a Billionaire: When to Sell Single Stock Positions
Stanley Druckenmiller Portfolio: 7 Top Holdings in 2024 originally appeared on usnews.com
