Millennium Management’s chief is trading in shares of hypergrowth AI stock Palantir Technologies for a well-known consumer-facing company with a high-octane dividend yield of 5.5%!
Last month, investors were overwhelmed with data releases. Between Election Day, earnings season, and monthly economic reports, it would have been easy for something important to fly under the radar.
For instance, investors may have overlooked that Nov. 14 was the deadline for institutional investors with at least $100 million in assets under management to file Form 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A 13F provides a clear snapshot for investors that allows them to see which stocks Wall Street’s most-prominent money managers have been buying and selling.
Historically, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway provides the most-anticipated of all 13Fs. But the “Oracle of Omaha” isn’t the only billionaire known to garner attention on Wall Street.
Image source: Getty Images.
Take Millennium Management’s billionaire chief Israel Englander as a perfect example. Englander oversees thousands of positions, which includes put and call options, for his fund.
While there have been countless trades made by Englander and his team since 2024 began, buying and selling activity in two of Wall Street’s buzziest stocks have raised some eyebrows.
Englander’s Millennium has dumped most of its stake in Palantir
When most investors think of artificial intelligence (AI) and the multitrillion addressable market attached to AI, hardware kingpin Nvidia probably comes to mind. But there’s another hypergrowth AI stock that Englander has been busy selling over the previous three quarters.
Based on Millennium Management’s last three 13Fs, Englander has overseen the sale of 11,085,606 shares of cloud-based data-mining specialist Palantir Technologies (PLTR -1.56%), which has reduced his fund’s stake in the company by 96%! It should be noted that Millennium also holds put and call options in Palantir, so there’s a potential hedge in place.
Over the trailing two years, shares of Palantir have skyrocketed by almost 745%. In other words, simple profit-taking is a viable catalyst that might have Millennium’s brightest investment minds ringing the register. Then again, there may be more behind this selling than meets the eye.
The most-glaring flaw with Palantir Technologies is the company’s otherworldly valuation. As of the closing bell on Dec. 2, shares of the company were valued at close to 44 times consensus sales for 2025, as well as a multiple of 141 times projected earnings per share (EPS) for the upcoming year. A forward-year price-to-sales multiple of 44 is indicative of a bubble.
To build on this point, Wall Street is historically pricey. The S&P 500‘s Shiller price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, which is also referred to as the cyclically adjusted P/E ratio (CAPE ratio), ended Dec. 2 at 38.61, which is its highest reading during the current bull market cycle, as well as the third-highest reading during a continuous bull market when back-tested 153 years. The Shiller P/E points to an eventual bear market, which would, presumably, hit companies with premium valuations (like Palantir) the hardest.
On the bright side, Palantir absolutely deserves some degree of valuation premium. The company’s AI-driven Gotham platform is responsible for helping federal governments (including the U.S.) plan and execute missions — and there’s simply no replacement at scale for the services (or profits) that Palantir’s Gotham offers.
Palantir’s Foundry platform, which relies on AI and machine learning to help businesses make sense of their big data, is another service to which there is no one-for-one replacement at scale.
But a moat can only carry a company so far. Englander and his team are likely aware of Palantir’s outsized premium, which is why they’ve chosen to cash in nearly all of Millennium’s chips.
Ford’s F-Series trucks (2023 F-350 Super Duty pictured) have been critical to its success. Image source: Ford Motor Company.
Englander more than 30X’d his fund’s stake in this beloved consumer brand
On the other end of the spectrum is a stalwart consumer brand that Millennium’s brightest minds, led by Englander, can’t stop buying: auto colossus Ford Motor Company (F -0.74%).
When the year kicked off, Millennium Management was holding 314,076 shares of Ford stock. Just nine months later, the fund’s 13F shows that 9,900,280 shares were purchased, which equates to an increase of 3,120%! Similar to Palantir, it should be noted that Millennium also holds put and call options on Ford Motor, which act as a hedge to its common-stock position.
Admittedly, the auto industry has been challenging for newcomers and stalwarts alike. The problem, as Ford and its shareholders have discovered, is that building an entirely new segment from the ground up to mass production — i.e., building out the infrastructure needed to mass-produce electric vehicles (EVs) — is costly. Ford’s Model e segment is losing a lot of money, which when coupled with warranty-related expenses for its entire fleet of vehicles has weighed on the company’s bottom line.
However, Englander’s conviction in Ford may have its merits.
For starters, Ford has demonstrated a willingness to pare back its EV spending until demand, and infrastructure, warrant an increase in production. Last year, management announced plans to curtail $12 billion in EV spending, which should allay any near-term spending concerns.
Let’s also address the elephant in the room: the company’s warranty expenses. Since Jim Farley took over as CEO in 2020, Ford’s manufacturing quality has demonstrably improved. In 2024, Ford moved toward the top of the list in J.D. Power’s Initial Quality Study. Ford should be nearing the end of higher-than-expected warranty costs, much of which originated prior to Farley taking over. Once these higher warranty expenses are put into the rearview mirror, Ford’s operating results should improve.
The other undeniable positive for Ford is the company’s unstoppable truck sales. The F-Series has been America’s top-selling truck for the last 47 years, and the top-selling vehicle (period!) for 42 consecutive years. Bigger vehicles, such as trucks and SUVs, generate juicier vehicle margins than smaller sedans. Ford being a leader in truck sales has played a key role in driving its operating cash flow and profits higher over time.
Sporting a 5.5% yield and valued at roughly 6 times forward-year earnings, Ford has the appearance of a bona fide bargain that can drive home meaningful gains for patient investors.
Source: Billionaire Israel Englander Sold 96% of Millennium's Stake in Artificial
