A large European asset manager recently made material changes in its largest US-traded stock investments.
DNB Asset Management sold iPhone maker Apple stock, and bought shares of General Electric and Nvidia , and initiated an investment in Coinbase Global in the second quarter. The unit of Norway’s largest financial-services firm DNB disclosed the stock trades, among others, in a form it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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DNB, which manages about $84bn in assets, didn’t offer a comment on the investment changes.
The asset manager sold 427,293 Apple shares in the second quarter to trim its investment to 3.7M shares. Apple stock slid 23% in the first half of the year, while the S&P 500 index fell 21%. So far in the third quarter, shares are up 9.8% while the index is up 2.1%.
Barron’s named Apple CEO Tim Cook to their latest Best CEOs list, praising his ability to push the company in new directions. One observer thinks Apple could have a $20bn ad business. Another analyst thinks Apple’s fiscal third-quarter report, set for 28 July, could cause shares to rebound.
GE’s second-quarter report, set for 26 July, is also a much-anticipated event. Some have suggested avoiding the stock ahead of the report, with the idea that expectations are too high. In fact, there has been a recent string of analyst price-target cuts to GE stock. Ahead of a three-way breakup, GE has been shaking up management.
DNB bought 64,100 additional GE shares to end the second quarter with 357,117 shares. GE stock dove 33% in the first half, and it is 1.3% in the red so far in the third quarter.
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The asset manager bought 326,729 more Nvidia shares to lift its investment to 895,327 shares of the graphics-chip maker at the end of June. Nvidia stock crumbled 48% in the first half, and it is up 4.0% so far in July.
A stronger dollar hasn’t been benefiting Nvidia. PC and laptop sales, which boomed in the depths of the pandemic, have slowed, hurting chip makers. This month we noted that Wall Street analysts were slashing Nvidia target prices, some citing cryptocurrency miners dismantling their setups and selling the graphics cards.
Coinbase saw its shares plunge 81% in the first half of the year, as cryptocurrencies plunged. So far in the third quarter, shares of the cryptocurrencies exchange has gained 14%.
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One observer recently wrote that Coinbase can navigate the “crypto winter.” D.A. Davidson analyst Christopher Brendler kept a Buy rating on Coinbase stock but lowered his 12-month price target to $90 from $135 because of lower trading volume. Earlier this month, Coinbase launched a derivatives product, as its core spot-trading business weakened.
DNB bought 13,641 Coinbase shares in the second quarter. It hadn’t owned any at the beginning of the period.
This article was first published by Barron’s.
