Stan Druckenmiller sharply raised his bet on the stock market.
The legendary macro trader’s Duquesne Family Office reported that the assets in its U.S. stock portfolio jumped by about one-third to $3.9 billion from $2.9 billion the prior quarter (excluding call and put options), according to its latest 13F regulatory filing.
This is the largest amount of assets held in the U.S. equity portfolio in at least seven years.
Some of the increase is no doubt attributable to positive performance from its overall portfolio, but a sizable slice was also due to a larger allocation made to U.S. stocks by Duquesne in the second quarter.
Altogether, Duquesne made 30 new common stock investments during the most recent three-month period, among the most the fund has ever made in a single quarter. It made just 12 new investments in the first quarter.
At the same time, it fully liquidated just 15 stocks, the fewest in six quarters.
As a result, Duquesne held a total of 65 stocks at the end of the second quarter, compared with 49 the prior quarter. The total was still fewer than the 74 held at the end of the fourth quarter.
Just one new position cracked the top 10. Duquesne established a new investment in Entegris, a supplier of materials for the semiconductor and other industries. It is now Duquesne’s eighth-largest long holding.
The family office also made a new investment in cloud computing giant Microsoft, now its thirteenth-largest long.
Duquesne’s three largest long bets, accounting for nearly one-quarter of its U.S. common stock assets, were all health care related.
Natera remained Duquesne’s largest U.S. long position for the fourth straight quarter, even as the family office trimmed the position by more than 9 percent. The stock accounted for more than 12 percent of its U.S. assets at the end of June. Shares of the clinical genetic testing company are up less than 3 percent for the year.
