Data is the fuel that powers Wall Street. Unfortunately, the amount of data investors have to digest can sometimes be overwhelming. Between earnings season -- the six-week period each quarter where most S&P 500 companies report their operating results -- and near-daily economic data releases, it can be easy for something of importance to go unnoticed.
For example, Aug. 14 marked the filing deadline for Form 13Fs with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and it's possible investors may have missed the invaluable information contained within these filings.
A 13F is a required filing for institutional investors with at least $100 million in assets under management (AUM). It provides investors with a concise snapshot of which stocks Wall Street's preeminent money managers bought and sold in the latest quarter.
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While it's great to see what investors have been up to recently, bigger trends can emerge when looking two or more quarters into the past. For instance, the trading activity of billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller of Duquesne Family Office should raise the eyebrows of professional and everyday investors alike.
Druckenmiller oversees more than $4 billion in AUM at Duquesne, and he's been a very active investor over the last year, based on 13Fs. Between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, he's completely exited his fund's stake in premier artificial intelligence (AI) stock Palantir Technologies (PLTR -9.39%) and loaded up on shares of a high-flying drug stock for a fourth consecutive quarter.
Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller dumped Palantir (and it may have to do with more than profit-taking)
Though Nvidia is often viewed as the face of the AI revolution, Palantir's nearly 2,700% return since the start of 2023 suggests it may have supplanted Nvidia on the AI pedestal.
Palantir's eye-popping returns reflect the irreplaceability of its two core AI-inspired platforms, Gotham and Foundry. The former is used by federal governments to plan and oversee military missions, as well as to collect and analyze data. Meanwhile, Foundry is an enterprise-focused subscription service that helps businesses make sense of their data in order to streamline/automate their operations. There aren't clear one-for-one replacements for either platform, meaning Palantir's operating cash flow tends to be highly predictable and safe.
Palantir has also made it a habit of blowing Wall Street's consensus sales and profit expectations out of the water. It shifted to recurring profitability well ahead of consensus estimates, and has sustained a strong double-digit growth rate thanks, primarily, to lucrative multiyear contracts for Gotham.
Despite these victories, Stanley Druckenmiller reduced his company's stake in Palantir from a peak of nearly 770,000 shares at the end of June 2024 to no shares remaining by the end of March 2025.
Druckenmiller dumping the hottest AI stock on the planet might be explained by nothing more than profit-taking. As of June 30, the 69 securities in Duquesne's investment portfolio had been held for an average period of less than seven months. In short, the fund's billionaire boss isn't afraid to lock in gains when the opportunity presents itself.
However, there are reasons to believe Palantir stock was sent to the chopping block for more than just simple profit-taking.
Arguably the biggest headwind for Palantir is the company's nosebleed valuation. Though businesses with sustainable moats are 100% deserving of a premium on Wall Street, there's a limit as to how far this premium can be stretched.
Prior to the bursting of the dot-com bubble, companies on the leading edge of the internet revolution peaked at price-to-sales (P/S) ratios of around 30 to 40. Palantir's stock was recently tipping the scales at a P/S ratio of around 140! No megacap stock in history has even been able to maintain such an aggressive premium.
Additionally, no game-changing technological advancement in more than 30 years has avoided an early stage bubble-bursting event. This is to say that investors consistently overshoot when it comes to the adoption rates and utility of new technologies early in their expansion. If an AI bubble were to form and burst, Palantir stock would feel the pain.
Image source: Getty Images.
Duquesne's billionaire chief has bought shares of this drugmaker for four straight quarters
On the other hand, Stanley Druckenmiller has overseen the addition of 45 securities (including options contracts) to Duquesne's investment portfolio over the trailing year (ended June 30). While a number of these purchases are discussion-worthy, the one that really stands out is pharmaceutical titan Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA -2.82%).
Duquesne's billionaire chief has been a buyer of Teva stock for four consecutive quarters, and it's now his fund's second largest holding by market value:
- Q3 2024: 1,427,950 shares purchased
- Q4 2024: 7,569,450 shares
- Q1 2025: 5,882,350 shares
- Q2 2025: 1,089,185 shares (15,968,935 total shares held)
Though Teva stock has been virtually unstoppable over the trailing-two-year period, with a gain of 87%, as of the closing bell on Aug. 15, it hasn't always been this way. From 2015 through 2023, shareholders endured some hardships. During this period, the company (in hindsight) grossly overpaid for generic-drug maker Actavis, which ballooned its outstanding debt, and dealt with a litany of litigation, included U.S. states that sued Teva over its role in the opioid crisis.
The good news is that, after many years, Teva and its management team have put these issues to rest. In early 2023, 48 states agreed to a $4.25 billion settlement regarding outstanding opioid litigation. While this might sound like a daunting figure, it's spread across 13 years and accounts for up to $1.2 billion in generic Narcan, the opioid overdose reversal drug, that Teva will supply to states. The legal unknowns are gone for Teva.
Meanwhile, Teva is growing, once more. CEO Richard Francis has overseen a purposeful shift toward brand-name drug discovery and development. Even though novel therapies have a finite period of sales exclusivity, they offer considerably higher margins and growth rates when compared to generic drugs. Tardive dyskinesia drug Austedo is leading the way, with projected full-year sales of $2 billion or slightly above) in 2025.
There's also been meaningful belt-tightening since the mid-2010s. Previous CEO Kare Schultz, who's a known turnaround specialist, along with current CEO Francis, helped lower operating expenses and sell non-core assets. This has led to a meaningful reduction in Teva's net debt, which presumably opens the door to more research and development, and potentially earnings multiple expansion.
Lastly, Teva Pharmaceutical is historically cheap amid a very pricey stock market. Whereas the S&P 500's Shiller price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio recently neared 39, Teva's forward P/E ratio is a shade above 6. The risk-versus-reward with Teva for Druckenmiller is palpable.
