Viking Global’s Top 5 Stocks

2. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE)

Percentage of Viking Global’s 13F Portfolio: 4.83%

Viking Global’s Stake Value: $1,743,649,000

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 53

High-tech industrial firm General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) is one of the newly added positions in Viking Global’s portfolio in Q3 2021. The hedge fund bought 16.9 million shares of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) valued at $1.74 billion. 

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), one of the world’s leading industrial companies, is known for producing electrical and electronic equipment, medical devices, aircraft engines, and renewable energy solutions. The company announced total orders amounting to $22.1 billion for the fourth quarter of 2021, fueled by increased orders in the aviation and healthcare segments, which contributed $7.7 billion and $5.3 billion, respectively.

In January, Deutsche Bank maintained a Buy rating on General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) and set a new price target of $108 for the industrial stock. Meanwhile, there were 53 hedge funds that held stakes in General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) at the end of September 2021. The total value of this stake is $6.24 billion.

Here is what Vulcan Value Partners has to say about General Electric Company in its Q3 2021 investor letter:

“During the quarter, we sold our positions in General Electric Co. General Electric is a company we followed for a long time. In the past, we removed GE from the MVP list due to management’s poor capital allocation decisions which resulted in value instability. Larry Culp, the former CEO of Danaher, became CEO of General Electric in 2018. The company implemented a vast restructuring program to simplify the industrial side of its business, sold off non-core assets, paid down debt with the proceeds, and drastically shrunk GE Capital. These restructuring activities allowed its world-class jet engine and healthcare businesses to shine through, and improved value stability. As a result, we added the company back to the MVP list. While the pandemic negatively impacted General Electric’s aviation business in the short run, it also gave us the opportunity to buy General Electric in the second quarter of 2020 with a substantial margin of safety. GE is a good example of a competitively entrenched, yet slower-growing MVP business. As its stock price rose rapidly over the last year, its value growth did not keep up, and the price to value gap closed quickly. As our margin of safety diminished, we sold our position in GE and allocated to more discounted companies.”