Billionaire Dan Loeb Sold Amazon and Microsoft but Bought This "Magnificent Seven" Stock

Dan Loeb is known as a mover and a shaker in the investing world. He founded the New York-based hedge fund Third Point in 1995. It now has roughly $11.5 billion in assets under management. Loeb's net worth stands at $3.3 billion, according to Forbes.
The activist investor did some moving and shaking in his hedge fund's portfolio in the fourth quarter of 2023. Loeb reduced his stakes in Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). However, the billionaire investor bought another "Magnificent Seven" stock.
Taking profits
Loeb sold 210,000 shares of Microsoft in Q4. While this reduced Third Point's stake in the tech giant by over 9.4%, Microsoft remains the second-largest holding in the hedge fund's portfolio.
The billionaire investor has owned Microsoft off and on since 2006. He most recently initiated a new position in the fourth quarter of 2022, just in time to ride the generative AI wave started by OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT. Microsoft was a major beneficiary of this wave thanks to its partnership with OpenAI.
Third Point first owned Amazon in late 2019 and held the stock through the second quarter of 2022. Loeb didn't stay on the sidelines long with the e-commerce and cloud services leader. He initiated a new position in Amazon in the second quarter of 2023. Although he reduced Third Point's stake in the stock by nearly 10.3% in Q4 2023, Amazon still ranks as the hedge fund's third-largest holding.
Why did Loeb trim his positions in Amazon and Microsoft? The most likely reason is he wanted to take some profits. Both stocks delivered impressive gains last year.
A bigger bet on Meta
Although Loeb cooled somewhat on two Magnificent Seven stocks, he placed a bigger bet on Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META). The hedge fund manager increased Third Point's stake in Meta by nearly 5.5% in Q4 2023. The $410.6 million value of the position made Meta the sixth-largest holding for Third Point at the end of 2023.