We recently published a list of 7 new stock picks in Brad Gerstner’s portfolio. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Futu Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:FUTU) stands against other stock picks in Brad Gerstner’s portfolio.
Gerstner Expects More M&As in New Term
Strategists and investors are confident that the new administration will fuel the state of mergers and acquisitions in the United States. It is no surprise that renowned investor Brad Gerstner, founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital, believes the same. On November 6, Gerstner appeared in an interview on CNBC Television where he shared his expectations of the stock market.
Gerstner shares that the Republicans have been particularly critical of big tech companies and their “bundling powers” that happen to “crowd out startups” and “stifle innovation and startups.” He expects the new administration to scrutinize this trend heavily. He also adds that the true beauty of Silicon Valley lies in the innovation and technology bolstered by small tech and mergers and acquisitions.
Speaking of big tech, he suggests that these names have been cutting down on M&A deals and have instead directed their resources to stock repurchases, dividends, and onboarding new GPUs. He expects the new administration to alter the trend and loosen up the ability to do mergers and acquisitions.
Gertsner also suggests that the US market will be better off with a functioning mergers and acquisitions flow in Silicon Valley, which he refers to as the “heartbeat” of the place. He also shared his thoughts on the program, Invest America, which is expected to provide kids with $1,000 in seed money into investment accounts as soon as they are born. He has been working with leading lawmakers in the country to promote the program and is highly optimistic about its outcomes.
Gerstner is bullish on the program and highlighted that the move will bring a new era of enterprise, innovation, and capital management to the US economy. He added that this program will bolster the private market and likely create 3.7 million new stock market investors yearly. In addition to investors like Brad Gerstner, many large tech companies are on board with the program.
Brad Gerstner is one of the top technology investors and has had many notable transactions over the past few years through his firm. He is bullish on tech and innovation, particularly artificial intelligence. In Q3 2024, he initiated 8 new positions and also raised his stakes in 7 stocks, ending the quarter with a portfolio of $6.75 billion in 13F securities. With that, let’s discuss his top new picks as of Q3 2024.
Our Methodology
We scanned Altimeter Capital’s Q3 2024 portfolio and picked new additions from the fund’s top 13F holdings. Additionally, we’ve also added overall hedge fund sentiment, as of Q3 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A modern office building, showcasing the industry leading finance and taxation services provided by the company.
Futu Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:FUTU)
Altimeter Capital’s Stake Value: $55,070,488
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 29
Futu Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:FUTU) is a financial technology company based in Hong Kong. The stock is a new addition to Brad Gerstner’s portfolio, as of Q3 2024. The company operates a fully digitized brokerage platform, Futubull, that offers market data, financial news, interactive social features, and investor education. Its subsidiaries provide trading and clearing services for the United States, Hong Kong SAR, China Connect, Singaporean, Australian, Japanese, Canadian, and Malaysian stocks.
The company holds over 100 licenses and qualifications from across the globe. In July, Futu Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:FUTU) announced a license uplift allowing the company to provide virtual asset dealing in Hong Kong. During the same month, the company’s wealth management subsidiary surpassed $10 billion in assets under management, and in July the company announced a HKD 440 million investment in Airstar Bank.
In the third quarter of 2024, Futu Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:FUTU) saw a 33% increase in total paying clients and a 23% increase in registered clients. Overall, total users grew by 14.4%, and client assets by 48%. The third quarter has been exemplary for FUTU, given that trading volume increased by nearly 75% to reach HKD1.9 trillion.
According to the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, the company acquired another 154,000 paying clients, with Hong Kong and Singapore making up more than one-third of them. The company claims to continue optimizing its client acquisition channels and marketing campaigns in the two markets. Analysts are also bullish on the stock and their median price target represents an upside of 33% from current levels.
Overall, FUTU ranks 4th on our list of new stock picks in Brad Gerstner’s portfolio. While we acknowledge the potential of FUTU to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that certain AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than FUTU but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.