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Zurich-based Julius Baer increased his stake in Intel in the fourth quarter.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
A major Swiss bank called in chip stocks and loaded into media and entertainment stocks.
Julius Baer from Zurich bought it up
Intel
(ticker: INTC), Walt
disney
(DIS), and
AT&T
(T)stock, and sold the vast majority of its investment
Advanced micro devices
(AMD) in the fourth quarter. The private bank disclosed the stock transactions in a form it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The bank said it does not comment on individual interests. At the end of October, it had assets under management of $470 billion.
Intel
stock plummeted 49% in 2022, compared to a 19% drop in the
S&P 500 index.
So far in 2023, the stock is up 6.5% compared to a 6.0% rise in the index. Julius Baer bought 21,715 more shares of Intel to close the fourth quarter with 198,392.
The company’s fourth-quarter report and financial forecasts, released on Thursday, were disappointing, showing demand for PCs continues to decline. Earnings reports and guidance issued last year were also littered with weaker-than-expected numbers. Job cuts remain on the table.
Disney shares, meanwhile, fell 44% in 2022, but shares are up 26% so far this year. Julius Baer bought another 36,617 Disney shares to close 2022 with 359,185.
In November, Disney CEO Bob Chapek wrote in an internal memo that layoffs were likely, along with other cost-cutting measures. Before the month was out, Chapek himself was out, succeeded by his predecessor, Bob Iger. In January, activist investor Nelson Peltz knocked on the door of the Magic Kingdom.
AT&T shares fell just 1% in 2022, adjusted for the merger of its media assets with Discover to
Warner Bros. Discovery
(WBD). So far this year, AT&T shares have gained 8.4%. The bank purchased an additional 112,078 shares to close 2022 with 759,763 shares of the telecom giant.
Earlier this month, AT&T reported a strong fourth quarter, marked by wireless subscriber growth and a charge related to its fixed-line business. Chief Financial Officer Pascal Desroches said the certainty of his dividend is “very high”.
AMD’s third quarter, reported on Nov. 1, was weaker than expected. That’s what CEO Lisa Su said from Baron early 2023 that AMD was focused on artificial intelligence. “AI has been around for quite some time,” said Su, “but we are at a turning point, touching all of our technologies, from chips for consumer devices to the biggest chips we build for data centers. You need AI capabilities in every one of those devices.”
AMD shares fell 55% in 2022, but shares are up 16% so far this year. Julius Baer sold 788,875 AMD shares to reduce his investment to 71,364.
Inside Scoop is a regular feature by Barron about stock transactions by corporate executives and board members – so-called insiders – as well as major stockholders, politicians and other prominent figures. Because of their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock transactions to the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.
Write to Ed Lin at edward.lin@barrons.com and follow up @BarronsEdLin.
