SuperInvestor, Politician, and Insider News | A Simple Side Sunday Update

Superinvestors (Buffett, Burry, etc) have been filling their 2025 Q1 portfolio updates… and they are full of surprises.

We will get into the most notable portfolio change quickly. I am of course referring to Burry liquidating all of his holdings except for one stock… However, that isn’t all — other investors have made some BIG moves. It looks like a lot of investors’ investment theses have been shaken to their core.

As always, I appreciate your feedback. Let me know what you thought of the newsletter today using the link below:

Superinvestor News & Updates

Top 10 bought stocks in Q1 2025 were…

Microsoft Corp (MSFT)$22.61 billion purchased

iShares S&P 500 ETF (IVV)$21.24 billion purchased

Amazon.com Inc (AMZN)$17.40 billion purchased

Apple Inc (AAPL)$15.80 billion purchased

Broadcom Inc (AVGO)$15.02 billion purchased

Nvidia Corp (NVDA)$14.33 billion purchased

Alphabet Inc (GOOGL)$12.21 billion purchased

Meta Platforms Inc (META)$11.31 billion purchased

Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW)$10.90 billion purchased

UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH)$10.32 billion purchased

Superinvestor’s Most Purchased Stock: MSFT (Microsoft).

The three biggest buyers were Geode Capital Management, Vanguard, and BlackRock. They bought more than $8 billion worth of stock. The funds accounted for nearly 35% of the total inflows, which crossed $22.5 billion.

Wondering if it is time to ride the Microsoft Wave? I went ahead and ripped through the earnings call they had on April 30th. Here are the key takeaways:

Positve

* Microsoft Cloud revenue surpassed $42 billion, up 22%, showcasing strong demand for cloud and AI offerings.

* Azure and other cloud services revenue grew 33% and 35%, driven by strong demand for AI services.

* Microsoft 365 Copilot usage tripled year-over-year, indicating strong adoption of AI-driven productivity tools.

* Now this is surprising, given that many people don’t believe Copilot is going to be a major revenue driver for MSFT as a company.

* Maybe there is a road to integrating the system into their ecosystem of products (Word, Excel, etc) to drive revenue.

* The company is clearly betting on being a major player in the space with their data center announcement plans.

* LinkedIn revenue increased 7% and 8%, with significant growth in LinkedIn Premium subscriptions.

* There is no surprise to me here. The world is becoming increasingly business-centric. We know this to be true as we have seen the rise of the retail trader

* Gaming revenue increased 5% and 6%, with Xbox content and services revenue growing 8% and 9%.

Negative

* On-premises server business revenue decreased by 6% and 4%, reflecting a continued shift to cloud offerings.

* Again, I want to reference the billions of dollars MSFT is investing in data centers here. They likely know that “on-site” offerings will continue to decrease in revenue share as AI and cloud both become standard/ industry norms!

* Microsoft Cloud gross margin percentage decreased by 3 points year-over-year due to the impact of scaling AI infrastructure.

* Again, we see the impact of their AI infrastructure buildout.

* Operating expenses increased by 6% and 7%, driven by investments in AI infrastructure.

* There are AI capacity constraints expected beyond June, indicating potential challenges in meeting growing demand.

* Bad news in the short term, great news in the long run.

* The Talent Solutions business within LinkedIn continues to be impacted by weakness in the hiring market.

* We will likely see this trend continue until the economy starts to stabilize and we experience less market volatility.

Overall, MSFT still looks like a solid stock to be invested in for those looking at smart & safe investments for 5-10+ years into the future. It will remain a staple in my “indicator portfolio: TSS 50.”

Most Convicted Superinvestor

The “Most Convicted” superinvestors matter because they hold so few stocks in their portfolios and are willing to continue betting on those concentrated holdings.

The one big investor everyone seems to be worried about now is Michael Burry.

Michael Burry

Before we get into his current market moves, I want to let you know what Burry’s portfolio used to look like.

In Q4 of 2024, Burry owned 6 main stocks (with a few other small holdings sprinkled in) — they made up a total of 71.9% of his portfolio.

Burry’s portfolio now? Well, it consists of one stock: Estée Lauder (EL).

The question is, why? Why Estée Lauder? Well, beauty and cosmetic companies are well known to be some of the most resilient during economic downturns. Burry is betting that the economy is about to get really rough, and this sentiment is reflected in his options portfolio.

While everyone is looking at and questioning why Burry is going all in on EL, they seem to have forgotten that Burry (famously) loves derivatives. Currently, all of the options Burry owns are put contracts.

He is betting that things are about to head south in the markets.

Now, whether you want to follow in his footsteps or think he is entirely wrong is entirely your decision. There is, however, one thing that no one can disagree with — he has the highest conviction of any investor right now.

He is all in.

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🟢Largest Insider Buys This Week🟢

Notable Recent Insider Trades: UNH Stock

UNH is down over 40% since last year. The stock price is falling with all the negative news about dead CEOs, medicare fraud, etc.

Well, some of the smartest people in the world have said,

Buy on bad news, sell on good

and

What it hated and unloved is the best investment

🔴Largest Insider Sells This Week🔴

🟢Largest Hedge Fund Buys This Week🟢

🔴Largest Hedge Fund Sells This Week🔴

🟢Largest Politician Buys & Sells🔴

- ¢, Founder of The Simple Side

No Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.