Harvard University Stock Portfolio 2026: Top 10 Picks

In this article, we will discuss Harvard University Stock Portfolio 2026: Top 10 Picks.

Harvard Management Company manages the investment portfolio of Harvard University. The fund returned 11.9% in fiscal year 2025, ending June 30, 2025. The total endowment rose to $56.9 billion. Over the past eight years, returns have averaged 9.6% annually.

HMC’s gains last year were driven by public equities, hedge funds, and private investments, with both hedge funds and public equities beating their benchmarks.

An interesting point is that Harvard Management Company has a heavy exposure to private markets, which make up about 41% of its portfolio. Hedge funds account for roughly 31%, while public equities represent about 14%.

The fund also uses a large allocation to “uncorrelated assets” to reduce risk and smooth returns across different market conditions.

This approach is similar in spirit to the “all-weather” strategy used by billionaire investor Ray Dalio, which is designed to keep a portfolio resilient across different economic cycles.

For this article, we scanned HMC’s Q1 portfolio and picked its top 10 holdings. 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. Insider Monkey’s quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 599.2% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 372 percentage points (see more details here).

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10. Flutter Entertainment (NYSE:FLUT)

Harvard’s Stake: $8,190,765

Flutter Entertainment (NYSE:FLUT) is the world’s largest online sports betting and iGaming company. Its most valuable asset is FanDuel, the dominant sports betting platform in the United States. The stock is down over 55% this year, hurt by two main fears. The first is the rise of prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi, which are pulling users away from traditional sportsbooks. An overall downturn in the sportsbook industry is also impacting the stock.

However, some believe the stock is undervalued and can rebound. Based on management’s full-year 2026 EBITDA guidance of $2.86 billion, the stock now trades at just 10.5x EV/EBITDA with a free cash flow yield above 10%,  well below its historical average.

The upcoming FIFA World Cup could be a catalyst. Some indicators show that over 60% of American soccer fans plan to bet on the tournament, and 29% of Americans plan to place their first-ever sports bet during the event.

iGaming — online casino games like slots and poker played over the internet — is another underappreciated growth driver. Unlike sportsbook betting, which is seasonal, iGaming generates revenue all year round. It is currently only legal in 7 US states, meaning expansion into new states is a significant untapped opportunity. Flutter Entertainment’s (NYSE:FLUT) iGaming segment already grew 28% year over year in Q1 2026.

Flutter Entertainment (NYSE:FLUT) is not ignoring the prediction market threat. The company announced it will launch FanDuel Predicts, its own prediction market product, backed by an initial $40 million investment.

9. Zillow (NASDAQ:Z)

Harvard’s Stake: $23,257,422

Zillow (NASDAQ:Z) has been one of the biggest losers in the market, down about 50% over the past year. But bulls believe the stock can rebound from here.

A key growth driver is rentals. In Q1, rental revenue jumped 42% year-over-year. The company had 2.7 million average monthly active rental listings on its platform. It is becoming the default destination for renters across the U.S.

Bulls also believe Zillow (NASDAQ:Z) is evolving into a full housing transaction platform. Purchase loan originations nearly doubled in Q1 to $1.55 billion. Zillow is no longer just a place to browse homes. It is now involved in the mortgage, the tour, and the closing.

AI is also weighing on the stock. The fear is straightforward — if AI agents like Gemini or ChatGPT can scrape listings, answer housing questions, and connect buyers directly to agents, why would anyone need Zillow? The worry is that Zillow (NASDAQ:Z) becomes irrelevant as the search layer of real estate gets commoditized.

But Zillow (NASDAQ:Z) bulls say these fears are overdone. The company’s moat is not in search listings — it is in deeply embedded workflow software that powers the entire transaction. ShowingTime supports roughly 90% of U.S. home tours. Follow-Up Boss is the CRM for about 80% of the top 50 highest-volume agent teams. These tools are deeply integrated into how agents and buyers operate daily. An AI chatbot cannot easily replicate that.

The losses have made the valuation attractive. The stock trades at roughly 10 times forward EBITDA and about 2.6 times forward revenue — modest multiples for a company growing revenue at nearly 20% in a housing market that is barely moving.

8. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Harvard’s Stake: $111,310,180

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is down about 8% so far this year, with CapEx-related fears being the primary drag on the stock despite Mark Zuckerberg’s assurances that these investments will pay off in the future. But investor concerns are not unfounded.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) carries a 35% CapEx-to-sales ratio, far above peers like Google (26%), Pinterest (0.95%), and Reddit (0.28%), yet lacks a clear path to AI monetization. Unlike Google, Microsoft, or Amazon, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) has no cloud business to sell compute to enterprises — its GPU purchases and data center buildouts are solely for internal use, primarily to optimize its advertising business through better content recommendations. Some analysts believe that a reduction in CapEx spending, combined with a further decline in the stock price that pushes multiples below sector medians, could finally make the valuation attractive enough to turn bullish.

Impax US Sustainable Economy Fund stated the following regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:

“Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) (Communication Services, Interactive Media & Services) is not held in the portfolio due to its unfavorable Corporate Resilience profile, including below-average scores on social risk management and governance. The stock declined materially during the quarter, reflecting broader de-rating of large-cap technology names and concerns around slowing digital advertising growth in a weaker consumer environment. The portfolio’s zero weight, given Meta’s meaningful benchmark position, made this the second-largest positive active contributor.”

7. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Harvard’s Stake: $129,717,150

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) has become a near-consensus AI stock pick among elite hedge funds and institutional investors — and for good reason. The company is the undisputed leader in the AI revolution, with its order backlog projecting roughly $1 trillion in revenue by 2027. But Nvidia is far more than a chip seller. It sells complete supercomputer racks, acquired Mellanox for $7 billion to optimize data transfer between chips, maintains the dominant CUDA software library that locks customers into its ecosystem due to the sheer complexity of switching, and runs an annual GPU refresh cycle that keeps competitors perpetually behind.

The Rubin architecture — the successor to Blackwell — is expected to further extend Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) performance-per-watt lead and drive another wave of upgrade demand from hyperscalers and enterprises already deep in the CUDA ecosystem, potentially adding a significant new revenue uplift cycle.

Robotics represents another compelling long-term growth catalyst. Demand for GPUs from engineers training humanoid robots is accelerating, and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) has made its ambitions clear by unveiling its own humanoid robot built on the Nvidia Jetson Thor platform.

Perhaps the boldest strategic move recently, however, is Nvidia’s entry into the PC CPU market with its RTX Spark chips. The PC market has historically been a stable, high-volume segment dominated entirely by the Intel-AMD duopoly — but that duopoly is now under threat. RTX Spark would give Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) control of the full hardware stack — CPU, GPU, and NPU — eliminating the need to share profits with Intel or AMD and maximizing margins. It also mirrors Apple’s successful transition away from x86 to ARM-based chips, which delivered superior performance and efficiency. Crucially, this move provides a powerful buffer against any potential slowdown in hyperscaler CapEx spending, diversifying Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) revenue base into a market with very different and more predictable demand cycles.

Eagle Point Capital stated the following regarding NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:

“NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is beloved by investors because it dominates the cutting edge of their industries. But the technology in its field is changing rapidly. It is unclear if it will be able to change with it. They must continuously disrupt and reinvent themselves before their competitors do. The odds are that eventually they’ll stumble. No one bats one thousand forever. History is littered with companies, like Intel, that looked dominant but could not adapt as their environment changed.”

6. Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Harvard’s Stake: $146,681,741

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) is up roughly 35% so far this year, yet bulls believe there is still meaningful upside ahead. The core reason is simple: the custom AI chip industry is booming as hyperscalers seek lower-cost, purpose-built alternatives to off-the-shelf GPUs — and Broadcom dominates this space. CEO Hock Tan stated earlier this year that the company has clear visibility to AI revenue from chips alone exceeding $100 billion in 2027, providing a rare and concrete long-term anchor for investors.

What makes Broadcom’s (NASDAQ:AVGO) position particularly defensible is its web of locked-in, multi-year hyperscaler partnerships. Meta extended its partnership through 2029 to co-develop multiple generations of its custom AI training and inference chips using Broadcom’s 2nm-class technology. Google extended its TPU development and supply agreement through 2031, guaranteeing Broadcom a five-year committed deployment runway.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) is also collaborating with Anthropic on a 4.5GW compute capacity deal and with OpenAI on a massive 10GW custom inference engine — though both relationships involve complex financing arrangements that the market is watching closely. Combined, these partnerships have pushed Broadcom’s AI order book to $73 billion, with its total corporate backlog approaching $162 billion.

However, the valuation is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. Broadcom’s (NASDAQ:AVGO) non-GAAP P/E stands at 61x — significantly higher than other high-growth chip players like Nvidia (36x) and Micron (44x). This is harder to defend given that Broadcom’s 3-year revenue CAGR of 25.66% and net income CAGR of 24.96% pale in comparison to Nvidia’s growth trajectory. The stock is effectively priced for perfection, meaning any stumble on earnings or a walk-back of the $100 billion 2027 target could trigger a sharp rerating.

Carillon Eagle Growth & Income Fund stated the following regarding Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:

“Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) was weak for the quarter as higher inflation led investors to fear a slowdown in hyperscaler spending. This led to lower spending on custom silicon, the main reason for Broadcom’s strength over the last couple of years. We believe Broadcom still has some of the best tech in the space and will be one of the biggest winners from AI.”

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