The largest U.S. public pension by assets recently made major changes in some of its biggest investments.
In the second quarter, California Public Employees' Retirement System slashed stakes in artificial-intelligence chip maker NVIDIA Corp, software firm IBM, and retailer Wal-Mart, while buying more shares of electric-vehicle maker Lucid Group Inc. Calpers, as the pension is known, disclosed the stock trades, among others, in a form it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In response to a request for comment on the investment changes, the pension emailed the statement, "Calpers' global public equities are largely managed using quantitative and systematic investment approaches and, as such, we do not comment on our individual holdings or trades or discuss investment strategy."
The pension has assets of more than $520 billion, making it the largest public pension in the country.
Calpers sold 14 million Nvidia shares in the second quarter to cut its stake to 63 million shares. In the first half of the year, Nvidia stock soared 150% while the S&P 500 rose 14%. So far in the third quarter, shares are down 3.4% while the index is up 3.4%.
Nvidia reported strong second-quarter earnings and raised guidance in the past week. Still, some investors are worried the AI boom -- and Nvidia stock -- have gone too far, too soon. Shares slipped in the wake of the report, but are the best performers in the S&P 500 so far this year.
IBM shares got a boost in late July when the company reported a strong second quarter. In late August, the company announced the closure of its China research and development department; it's becoming a trend for American technology companies.
The pension sold 808,800 IBM shares to end the second quarter with 5.3 million shares. IBM stock rose 5.7% in the first half of the year, and so far in the third quarter shares are up 17%.
Calpers sold 3.5 million Walmart shares in the second quarter to cut its stake to 17.4 million shares.
Strong second-quarter earnings from Walmart in mid-August lifted shares, and alleviated investor worries about inflation. Walmart also disclosed in August that it planned to sell its entire stake in Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com, valued at more than $3 billion.
Wal-Mart stock rose 29% in the first half of 2024, and so far in the third quarter shares are up 14%.
Calpers bought 262,123 more Lucid shares to end the second quarter with 1.3 million shares.
Lucid stock collapsed 38% in the first half of 2024, but shares have erased much of that loss so far in the third quarter by surging 54%.
Shares of the EV maker rose in early August when it reported strong second-quarter sales, and received an analyst upgrade. Lucid also got a $1.5 billion investment commitment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign-wealth fund, news that eclipsed the quarterly report.
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