A large U.S. pension recently made big changes in its investment portfolio.
State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio materially lifted investments inAlibaba Group Holding(ticker: BABA),Eli Lilly(LLY), andCiscoSystems (CSCO) stock, and halved an investment inSalesforce.com(CRM). STRS Ohio, as the pension is known, disclosed the trades ina form it filedwith the Securities and Exchange Commission.
STRS Ohio, which managed$79.8 billion in assetsas of June 30, 2020, didn’t respond to a request for comment on the investment changes.
The pension bought 136,700 more Alibaba American depositary receipts in the fourth quarter to end 2020 with 342,134 ADRs fo the Chinese internet giant.
Alibaba ADRs rose 9.7% in 2020, and so far in 2021, through Friday’s close, they have gained 14.2%. In comparison, theS&P 500 indexgained 16.3% last year, and this year has risen 3.5%.
Alibaba ADRstumbled in Decemberwhen an affiliate was forced by Chinese regulators to scuttle an initial public offering. Alibaba founder Jack Ma alsohas kept a low profile aftercriticizing the state-owned bank system last fall.
STRS Ohio bought 248,974 additional shares of Lilly to end the year with 646,026 shares of the pharmaceutical giant.
LIlly stock rose 28.5% last year, and so far in 2021, it is up 19.5%.
Lilly reported astrong fourth quarter—boosted by government stockpiling of the company’s antibody treatment for Covid-19—at the end of January.Upbeat dataon its experimental Alzheimer’s treatment has also bolstered Lilly stock. One observer thinks shares arestill a buy,even with the recent appreciation.
Cisco stock slipped 6.7% in 2020, but so far in 2021 it has gained 7.4%.
Some on Wall Street think that networking giant Cisco will benefit fromimproved IT spending. Anyone pursuing the Dogs of the Dow strategy is aware that the high-yielding shares arein the doghouse. Cisco stockcould reboundfrom 2020’s drop as growth resumes.
STRS Ohio bought 350,742 additional Cisco shares in the fourth quarter to raise its investment to 2.6 million shares.
The pension sold 363,451 Salesforce shares to end the quarter with 331,122 shares of the software firm.
Salesforce stock leaped 36.8% in 2020, and is up another 7.4% so far this year.
Some on Wall Streetremain bullishon Salesforce stock, whileothers aren’t. Investors may feel that Salesforce is paying too much forSlack Technologies(WORK), which the company hasagreed to acquire.