With the fiscal third quarter of 2023 over, financial services operations are filing their Securities and Exchange Commission 13(f) forms in what’s been a surprisingly resilient market over the course of the year, given the external conditions.
High interest rates have locked capital markets for more than 18 months, and uncertainty in the U.S. banking system, continued war in Europe, and an increasingly contentious regulatory environment haven’t been enough to deter at least some growth in many of the largest companies out there, many of which benefit from the capital of the funds below.
Appleton Partners Inc.
Appleton Partners Inc., Red Spruce, and Park National are among the hedge firms that have made some moves over the past fiscal quarter, while results are still incoming for some other notable funds, such as Armistice Capital.
Appleton, a large advisory firm out of Boston with over $12 billion in assets under management, filed its third quarter 13(f) on Sept. 30. The firm has about $1.13 billion in managed 13(f) securities, including investments in several Big Tech companies as well as institutional funds managed by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Schwab.
Also read: Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).
The firm’s largest investment is in tech blue chip Apple, where it holds 445,476 shares with a market value of just over $76 million. That constitutes just under 7% of the firm’s portfolio. Appleton decreased its position in Apple by about 2% in the fiscal third quarter, dropping just under 11,000 shares.
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Its next largest investment is in the JPMorgan Ultra-Short Income ETF. An exchange-traded fund, its mandate is to “provide current income while seeking to maintain a low volatility of principal and maintaining a duration of one year or less.”
Appleton holds 974,980 shares of JPMorgan Ultra-Short Income ETF, valued at $48.92 million, which makes up about 4.35% of Appleton’s overall portfolio. The firm also took a smaller position from last quarter on that company, dropping nearly 116,000 shares, or about 10% of its investment.
Appleton also has a strong position in Microsoft, which has seen some bumps due to its artificial intelligence products. Appleton has 135,220 shares in Microsoft, or about a $42.6 million investment, which comprises 3.87% of their portfolio. Appleton increased its investment in MSFT last quarter, albeit a smaller buy, by 526 shares.
Red Spruce Capital
Based in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, Red Spruce Capital is a large advisory firm with close to 150 clients and $167 million in discretionary assets under management prior to its current 13(f) filing. That filing now shows the firm with over $175 million AUM.
The firm’s biggest investments include Alphabet Inc., Invesco BulletShares 2025 Corporate Bond ETF, Investco BulletShares 2026 Corporate Bond ETF, and AbbVie Inc.
Google’s parent company needs no introduction, clearly. The Big Tech juggernaut is into a lot of different industries, but the one that has generated the most interest recently is its large-language model AI engine, Bard. Red Spruce owns 77,027 shares of Alphabet with a market value of just over $10 million. That constitutes Red Spruce’s most significant percentage investment, with Alphabet comprising 5.72% of the firm’s overall portfolio. Red Spruce dropped 443 shares of Alphabet in fiscal Q3.
Invesco BulletShares 2025 is located in Downers Grove, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. The fund has just over $3 billion in total assets, along with $228 million in total liabilities for a net asset value of $2.77 billion. Red Spruce has just over 4% of its portfolio invested in the fund. That’s 384,290 shares valued at $7.72 million. Red Spruce dripped just over 4,600 shares in the last fiscal quarter, a 1% decrease.
Invesco BulletShares 2026 is Red Spruce’s third largest investment, where it houses roughly $7.3 million across 390,724 shares. The fund is smaller than its sister fund, with $2.10 billion in total assets matched against $198.2 million in liabilities for a net asset value of $1.90 billion. Red Spruce dropped 2% of its shares of Invesco BulletShares 2026 in the third quarter, or 8,917 shares.
Red Spruce has its fourth sizable investment in AbbVie Inc. AbbVie is a pharmaceutical developer and manufacturer based in Chicago. The company is known for a series of successful drug developments, including autoimmune injection treatment Humira, plaque psoriasis treatment Skyrizi, and a pancreatic enzyme treatment called Creon. AbbVie has a market cap of $261 billion and an enterprise value of $287 billion.
Red Spruce has a $7.32 million investment in AbbVie across 49,130 shares. Red Spruce dropped 22 shares since last quarter, a negligible percentage of its overall investment in the pharma giant.
Armistice Capital
Armistice Capital, which had its last 13(f) filing on June 30 this year, is slated to have its results in for the fiscal third quarter soon.
Park National Corp.
Park National Corp. is a financial firm based out of Newark, Ohio. The firm has $2.21 billion in assets managed, according to its 2023 third quarter 13(f).
The firm’s most prominent investment is in itself. It operates as the holding company for Park National Bank and has 1.27 million shares worth $120 million. That’s down slightly (6,270 shares dropped) from its last 13(f) filing in the second fiscal quarter.
Park National is another firm that leans heavily into Microsoft. The holding company owns just over 377,000 shares of the tech giant, valued at $119 million. Park National also dropped its shares in Microsoft last quarter, selling off 3,853 shares, or about 1% of its investment.
It also has a sizable investment in Apple. The bank’s third-largest investment after its own fund and Microsoft, Park National owns 676,598 shares of Apple worth just shy of $116 million. Park National made a larger reduction in its position than it did with Microsoft, selling off just under 16,000 shares, or about 2% of its investment.
Sticking to its tech-focused portfolio, Park National’s fourth-largest investment is in graphics and networking solution company Nvidia Corp. Based in Santa Clara, California, Nvidia has seen its market cap soar thanks to its products’ importance in AI engine development. It now has a market cap of $1.3 trillion and an enterprise value of $1.16 trillion.
Park National owns 165,972 shares of Nvidia worth $115 million. It sold off a good portion of that investment last quarter, dropping almost 15,000 shares over the course of Q3, an 8% drop in the investment.
