State of Michigan Retirement System Doubles-Down On Tesla, Amazon Bets — Nearly Doubles Stake In This Telecom Stock

The State of Michigan Retirement System has hiked its stake in Tesla Inc. TSLA, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN and Verizon Communications Inc. VZ, while reducing its stake in Meta Platforms Inc. META. The fund provides pension services to public school employees, state employees, state police, judges and military retirement systems.

What Happened: According to the 13-F filing of the fund, it added over 3.4 million shares of Verizon during the third quarter, taking the valuation of its holdings to $269 million as of September. The fund has almost doubled its stake in the company during the quarter. Verizon constitutes 1.98% of its portfolio, according to Whale Wisdom.

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Verizon shares are down over 31% since the beginning of the year. The telecommunications giant reported third-quarter revenues of $34.2 billion and adjusted non-GAAP earnings of $1.32 per share, both of which surpassed street estimates. Shares of the New York-based telecom company, however, declined due to disappointing net post-paid phone subscriber additions.

Tesla and Amazon Buy: The State of Michigan Retirement System added 41,600 shares of Tesla to its portfolio during the quarter after accounting for the 3-for-1 stock split, taking its total holding to $191 million in the stock. The Elon Musk-led company has lowered the starting prices for its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in China. So far this year, the stock has lost more than 47%.

Another interesting stake purchase by the fund was Amazon. The fund loaded up over 37,000 shares in the retail giant taking its holding to over $333 million.

Whale Wisdom website shows that Amazon remains among the top holdings of the fund at 2.33% of the holding. Market volatility in 2022 has taken a toll on Amazon’s shares as well with the stock losing over 29% this year.

Meta Sale: The fund reduced its holding of Meta Platforms by over 540,000 shares during the quarter.

Editor's Note: This story was updated to account for a Tesla stock split. We regret the error.

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