Bridgewater Associates, the global investment management firm headed by Ray Dalio, disclosed that its equity portfolio has a market value of more than $12.22 billion based on its 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the first quarter.
Bridgewater Associates is an independent, employee-run investment management firm managing approximately $150 billion investments worldwide for a wide range of institutional clients including foreign governments and central banks, corporate and public pension funds, university endowments and charitable organizations.
Bridgewater New acquisitions
During the quarter, Bridgewater Associates acquired 93,308 Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B), the conglomerate controlled by billionaire investor Warren Buffett. Its stake in the conglomerate has a current market value of $11.661 million.
There have been reports that HomeServices of America (HSF), the real estate affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) is in talks to acquire Intero Real Estate Services, a residential real estate powerhouse based in Cupertino, California.
Dalio’s investment management firm also bought 577,500 shares of The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) worth $9.448 million. The global money transfer company recently tapped Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ:INFA) to serve as its data integration provider for its internal data initiative.
Western Union is processing an average of more than 29 transactions per second. Last year, the company completed 242 million customer to customer transactions and 459 million business payments worldwide.
Bridgewater Associates also purchased 62,322 shares of Perrigo Company PLC (TLV:PRGO), a global healthcare developer, manufacturer and supplier of over-the-counter (OTC) and generic prescription pharmaceuticals, infant formulas, nutritional products and dietary supplements etc. Its stake in the company is worth $9.639 million.
The investment management firm also bought 192,478 shares of Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED) worth $10.326 million, Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR) 133,288 shares worth $8.9 million and Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) worth $8.058 million, among others.
Bridgewater increased positions
Bridgewater Associates boosted its stake in Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEARCA:VWO) by 3,387,077 shares to 105,484,837 shares with a market value of more than $4,28 billion—its largest stock holding representing 33.7% of its portfolio.
The investment management firm also bought a additional 953,478 shares of Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC), bringing its stake in the company to total of 1,286,229 shares worth $25.686 million.
It also increased its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 564,200 shares to 1,080,780 shares worth $24.226 million. Bridgewater Associates also purchased 676,300 more shares of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), bringing is stake to total of 761,353 shares worth $19.654 million.
Bridgewater reduced stock holdings
The investment management firm reduced its stake in iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Indx (ETF) (NYSEARCA:EEM) by 7,826,065 shares. It still owns 69,596,365 shares in the index worth over $2.854 billion.
Bridgewater Associates also sold 71,500 shares in SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY), leaving it with 19,115,300 shares and bringing down the amount of its stake to around $3.574 billion.
