Harvard Management Co. Decreased Investments in Meta and Alphabet, Sold Biopharma Holdings in Q3

The Harvard Management Company sold a significant percentage of its direct holdings in Meta and Alphabet, as well as the entirety of its direct holdings in several acquired biomedical and pharmaceutical companies, during the third quarter of 2023.

According to a Nov. 9 public filing, the total value of HMC’s direct public portfolio in the third quarter was $885 million, representing a 15 percent decline in value from the second quarter. HMC stewards the University’s endowment, which ended fiscal year 2023 at a value of more than $50 billion. In fiscal year 2023, 11 percent of the endowment was invested in public equities.

Each quarter, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission requires money managers with more than $100 million of investments, including HMC, to disclose their direct public holdings. The data from the Nov. 9 filing represents ownership changes from July through September.

HMC sold 15.6 percent of its shares in Meta and 27.9 percent of its shares in Alphabet, the parent company of Google, in the third quarter of 2023. Despite the sell-off, Meta and Alphabet continued to be HMC’s largest direct holdings, constituting $288 million and $228 million of the portfolio, respectively.

Aside from the sale of these investments, HMC also bought shares in Instacart, a grocery delivery company based in San Francisco that recently went public in September of this year.

HMC sold 100 percent of its shares in 12 companies, consisting entirely of pharmaceutical and biomedical companies. Several of these companies were recently involved in mergers and acquisitions.

For instance, Magenta Therapeutics announced earlier this year that it would be acquired by Dianthus Therapeutics, a deal that closed in September of this year. Similarly, EQRx, an oncology and immunology biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was acquired by Revolution Medicines in a transaction that closed earlier this month.

Instacart was HMC’s only new holding in the third quarter of 2023. HMC’s holdings in Instacart totaled $15.4 million, almost 2 percent of the portfolio, valuing each share at $29.69 — slightly below the IPO share price of $30.

Additionally, HMC sold off 53.8 percent of its direct holdings in Sana Biotechnology and 8.7 percent of its direct holdings in 10x Genomics from the second to the third quarter, consistent with the trend of HMC selling its biopharma holdings.

HMC also maintained its direct holdings in a number of semiconductor companies, including NVIDIA, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, ASML Holding, and Advanced Micro Devices.

—Staff writer Krishi Kishore can be reached at krishi.kishore@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @tweetykrishi.

—Staff writer Rohan Rajeev can be reached at rohan.rajeev@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @rohanrajeev_.