Hedge funds ramped up bets on financials before election-driven rally, filings show

By Carolina Mandl

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Hedge funds Bridgewater Associates, Coatue Management and D1 Capital added shares of financial firms to their portfolio in the third quarter, securities filings showed, ahead of a rally that followed Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election.

Bridgewater, founded by Ray Dalio, ended September with bigger positions in Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS ), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC ), Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK ) and Citigroup (NYSE:C ). It also built a new position in Bank of America.

Expectations that a Trump victory would bring looser regulations to the banking industry helped lift the sector in recent weeks. The KBW Bank Index is up roughly 17% since the end of September and has surged by nearly 12% since the Nov. 5 vote.

Still, it is not possible to say whether Bridgewater held its position past Sept. 30, which is the cutoff date for the 13-F filings.

Though they do not reveal current holdings, the filings are one of the few ways to get a look at the portfolios of often-secretive market players such as hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds.

Bridgewater’s biggest position in dollar terms was Wells Fargo, a stake worth $79.6 million at the end of September.

Other hedge funds making bets on the banking sector included Dan Sundheim's D1 Capital Partners (WA:CPAP ), which had a new $174.9 million stake in Bank of America on Sept. 30, a filing showed.



Coatue Management reduced its sizable stakes in Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META ) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA ), and built new stakes in two investment firms. It bought 2.7 million shares in KKR, worth $355 million, and 195,969 shares in Blackstone (NYSE:BX ), or roughly $30 million.

Both Blackstone and KKR, which manage private equity funds, could benefit from a rebound in dealmaking.

Source: Investing.com