BlackRock significantly reduced its holdings in technology giants such as Apple and Google in the third quarter!
According to the 13F file, the global large asset company BlackRock Q3 has reduced its holdings of 8.23 million shares in Apple, Google has also suffered a reduction of nearly 8 million shares, Microsoft and Nvidia have also reduced their holdings of 2.61 million shares and 2.38 million shares, respectively.
However, BlackRock has also increased its holdings in technology stocks such as Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Tesla, with Amazon having the largest increase of nearly 2.5 million shares.
As of the end of the third quarter, the total market value of BlackRock's holdings had decreased to $3.48 trillion, from $3.63 trillion previously. Build 174 new stocks and clear 227 stocks.
In terms of financial data, BlackRock recorded year-on-year growth in net revenue and profit for the third quarter, with a total revenue of $4.522 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5%. The net profit was 1.604 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 14%; The adjusted net profit was $1.642 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13%.
As of the end of the third quarter, BlackRock's AUM reached $9.1 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 14%, but lower than the previous quarter's $9.43 trillion.
The rise of US stocks for most of this year has been driven by technology stocks. Although the technology wave cooled slightly in the third quarter, the optimistic view of the future development of technology stocks still holds the upper hand.
According to statistics from Guangfa Securities, the total revenue of major technology companies in the US stock market in the third quarter increased by 13.1% year-on-year to $319 billion, and the total net profit increased by 62.3% year-on-year to $65.1 billion. Guangfa Securities analyzed that it is mainly driven by factors such as improved macroeconomic environment, favorable foreign exchange conditions, and cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
From the financial reports, it can be seen that the importance of cloud services and AI is constantly increasing, and various technology giants are increasing their AI research and development efforts, accelerating the implementation of AI applications, and expanding the AI application ecosystem.
Microsoft's cloud business revenue in the third quarter maintained a double-digit growth momentum, with "smart cloud" business revenue including Azure, GitHub, server products, enterprises, and cloud services reaching $24.3 billion in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 19%, higher than analysts' expectations of $23.61 billion.
Amazon Cloud's AWS revenue in the third quarter was $23.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 12%, and operating profit was $6.98 billion, becoming Amazon's main source of net profit.
In the future, technology giants will continue to increase their investment in AI research and development. Meta expects capital expenditures to range from $27 billion to $29 billion in 2023 and $30 billion to $35 billion in 2024, mainly driven by investments in AI and non AI hardware, as well as new data centers. Microsoft also stated that capital expenditure will continue to grow, used for investment in cloud and AI infrastructure.
Dan lves, a well-known analyst at the US investment bank Wedbush, said that the wave of artificial intelligence applications will drive the stock prices of companies such as Apple up 30% next year.
Guangfa Securities also holds an optimistic attitude towards the future performance of US stock technology giants. The research report points out that the future trend of US stock technology stocks is mainly influenced by two factors: performance and the commercialization process of AI. Since the bottom of the US stock market rebounded, it has exceeded expectations for three consecutive quarters, and companies in Q4 have basically continued to show growth. In terms of specific business, advertising, subscription, and e-commerce continue to recover, and cloud business shows signs of stabilizing or rebounding growth rate. The positive impact of AI on existing business is beginning to manifest. Overall, the fundamentals of US stocks are in a steady growth trend, with AI gradually overlapping with existing businesses, gradually forming a positive cycle.