Trade Overview: Where Gurus Found Value in the 2nd Quarter

With the latest round of 13F filings released over the past month, investors and market watchers alike are interested in seeing where the major hedge fund managers are finding value opportunities.

BackgroundManagers with more than $100 million in assets under management are required to disclose their holdings to the SEC each quarter via 13F filings. These filings are due 45 days after the quarter end date. For second-quarter 2024, that means managers must disclose all qualifying assets held on June 30, 2024 by Aug. 15, 2024. Qualifying assets include long positions in U.S. equities and ADRs, call/put options and convertible debt securities. Shorts, cash positions, foreign investments and other assets are not included.

Investors can take advantage of these 13F filings to create portfolios from managers that have proven past success. Despite the 45-day delay in reporting, research has shown that investing alongside a single manager or group of managers can outperform the market. The key is to identify the best and most consistent funds to copy.

The statistics in this report are based on our Premium gurus. These gurus are our hand-picked, best-performing value investors that have proven long-term records.

Magnificent 7 stocks make up large portion of the Aggregated PortfolioThe GuruFocus Aggregated Portfolio, a Premium feature based on these managers' quarterly filings, shows the 10 most broadly held stocks as of the end of the second quarter of 2024 included some Magnificent Seven names that were also popular in the previous quarter, such as software giant Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google parent Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and social media leader Meta (NASDAQ:META) Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META).

TickerCompanyNo. of Guru OwnersNo. of BuysNo. of Sells

MSFT	Microsoft Corp.	65	17	39
GOOGL	Alphabet Inc.	54	9	36
AMZN	Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN).	49	14	28
META	Meta Platforms Inc.	47	13	33
UNH	UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE:UNH).	44	26	15
AAPL	Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL).	42	21	17
BRK.B	Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRKa)	39	12	19
DIS	The Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) Co.	36	12	19
TSM	Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.	35	15	18
BAC	Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC).	35	10	22

Other big names among Guru Hot PicksWhile these stocks are quite popular overall, they did not all necessarily see the heaviest guru buying activity during the three months ended June 30. According to GuruFocus Hot Picks, that honor only goes to a handful of companies, including UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), CVS Health Corp. (NYSE:NYSE:CVS) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:NYSE:XOM). However, a couple of these companies also recorded a lot of selling activity over the same period, such as Microsoft and Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE:TSM).

TickerCompanyBuysSellsNo. of Guru Owners

UNH	UnitedHealth Group Inc.	25	13	40
AAPL	Apple Inc.	21	16	41
CVS	CVS Health Corp.	19	8	26
XOM	Exxon Mobil Corp.	19	9	25
MSFT	Microsoft Corp.	17	39	59
AVGO	Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) Inc.	16	11	26
COP	ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)	16	10	27
ADBE	Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Inc.	16	11	29
GEV	GE Vernova Inc.	15	13	18
TSM	Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.	15	18	33

A mix of stocks make up Consensus Picks Then there are those stocks that were bought by at least two gurus during the quarter, but did not record any sells. GuruFocus Consensus Picks shows these companies included names like Natera Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA), Molina Healthcare Inc. (NYSE:MOH) and even a couple exchange-traded funds.

TickerCompanyNo. of BuysNo. of Guru Owners

NTRA	Natera Inc.	8	9
MOH	Molina Healthcare Inc.	8	9
GRAL	Grail Inc.	7	7
COLL	Collegium Pharmaceutical Inc.	7	7
TS	Tenaris SA	6	6
IBIT	iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF	6	6
IWF	iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF	6	7
ZETA	Zeta Global (NYSE:ZETA) Holdings Corp.	6	6
CAVA	Cava Group (NYSE:CAVA) Inc.	6	6
TDY	Teledyne Technologies Inc.	6	8

A glance at selling activityOn the sell side, GuruFocus Hot Picks found investors were shedding shares of a number of companies as well. While Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (NYSE:PXD) and Shockwave Medical Inc. (SWAV) are listed, they were not necessarily sold. Rather, these companies were acquired or merged with other companies and, therefore, are recorded as a sale in our database. As such, News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWSA) actually recorded the largest number of sell transactions for the period.

TickerCompanyBuys SellsNo. of Guru Owners

NWSA	News Corp.	0	9	9
BERY	Berry Global Group Inc.	0	8	6
L	Loews Corp (NYSE:L).	0	8	7
MSA	MSA Safety Inc.	0	8	4
REVG	REV Group Inc.	0	8	4
IDCC	InterDigital Inc.	0	8	7
FTAI	FTAI Aviation Ltd.	0	7	7
GFI	Gold Fields Ltd.	0	7	7
UPWK	Upwork Inc.	0	6	4
ES	Eversource Energy	0	6	4

Industry Trends analysisAs for gurus' investments within individual sectors, the GuruFocus Industry Trends page shows the heaviest buying occurred in the software industry, likely driven by the ongoing craze for artificial intelligence technology. However, several other industries recorded good numbers as well.

IndustryNo. of BuysNo. of SellsNo. of Holdings

Software	335	311	1,168
Biotechnology	190	302	737
Oil & Gas	188	217	767
Banks	136	159	745
REITs	134	185	482
Hardware	125	129	455
Insurance	119	79	415
Retail- Cyclical	118	117	441
Semiconductors	109	128	393
Industrial Products	100	123	425

International exposureBeyond the U.S., GuruFocus' Geographic Trends shows other areas of the world where gurus found potential value opportunities.

CountryNo. of BuysNo. of Sells

United States	125	123
Canada	35	46
United Kingdom	30	27
Ireland	20	16
China	19	24
Bermuda	17	9
Luxembourg	15	7
Israel	13	16
Brazil	13	7
Switzerland	13	12

You can see their overall exposure to different countries in the map below.

During the quarter, a number of well-known gurus were also making large bets in international companies by either entering new positions or expanding their existing holdings. For example, Canadian investor Francis Chou (Trades, Portfolio) boosted his stake in the Netherlands-based Stellantis NV (NYSE:NYSE:STLA). Spain's Azvalor also established a holding in Linea Directa Aseguradora SA (XMAD:LDA).

TickerCompanyGuruImpactNo. of Shares

XMAD:LDA	Linea Directa Aseguradora SA	Azvalor Iberia Fi	+8.43%	2.73 million
CNH	CNH Industrial NV	Tweedy Browne (Trades, Portfolio)	+6.66%	15.36 million
STLA	Stellantis NV	Francis Chou (Trades, Portfolio)	+6.04%	456,388
BIDU	Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU).	Michael Burry (Trades, Portfolio)	+5.77%	155,000
TSXV:RET.A	Reitmans Ltd.	Chou RRSP Fund (Trades, Portfolio)	+5.51%	429,100
BABA	Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) Group Holding Ltd.	Michael Burry (Trades, Portfolio)	+4.11%	155,000
AZN	AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN)	George Soros (Trades, Portfolio)	+3.66%	2.45 million
BORR	Borr Drilling Ltd.	Azvalor Internacional FI (Trades, Portfolio)	+3.65%	6.66 million
TSX:MRC	Morguard Corp.	Chou RRSP Fund (Trades, Portfolio)	+3.62%	5,800
XMAD:GRF	Grifols SA	Azvalor Iberia FI (Trades, Portfolio)	+3.31%	157,506

What about ETFs?As for exchange-traded funds, gurus appeared to be loading up on exposure to indexes like the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPY (NYSE:SPY)).

TickerETFNo. of Guru OwnersNo. of Guru BuysNo. of Guru Sells

SPY	S&P 500 ETF Trust	18	9	7
GLD	SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD) ETF	10	5	6
RSP	Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF	9	6	4
XLF	Financial Select Sector SPDR	9	4	3
EFA	iShares MSCI EAFE ETF	9	4	2
GDX	VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX)	8	2	4
IVV	iShares Core S&P 500 ETF	8	4	3
XLE (NYSE:XLE)	Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund	8	3	6
IJH	iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF	7	5	2
IWM	iShares Russell 2000 ETF	7	5	2

Value opportunities aboundEven as the market continues to grapple with high inflation and interest rates, not to mention intensifying geopolitical conflicts and an upcoming presidential election, gurus' trading activity shows there are plenty of investment opportunities available in the current environment.

Related Guru Screens you may be interested in:

Real-Time Picks

Aggregated Portfolio

Consensus Picks

Hot Picks

Guru Bargains

Industry Trends

This content was originally published on Gurufocus.com