Bill joined CNBC’s Halftime Report to discuss trimming in tech positions.
[TRANSCRIPT]
I like the story. I like the relative valuation. Maybe you’re buying a little bit of what another committee member is selling because we do have somebody who’s taking profits in some of the biggest names in this market. Bill Baruch joins us now via Skype to talk about this. So you’ve trimmed. Thank you for coming on today.
By the way, you’ve trimmed Apple. As I mentioned, you trimmed Amazon. That’s an interesting one to synopsis and Adobe. Talk to me. Yes, starting with with Apple you know, it’s still a large position. All of these are still really are in our top five and it just this is prudent portfolio management. Apple struggled to get out above 190 from a technical basis.
And so I want to step back a little bit here. Had a CPI and just take a again, a more of a prudent path. You’re looking at Amazon. Great, great response to earnings. The stock performed very well. It is still our number one holding. We trimmed both of these by about 10% just to get a little prudent portfolio management.
But going down the line here to synopsis. Cadence Design Systems reported after the bell yesterday and they both are leaders in electronic design automation. So we’re just taking a little bit of a cautious approach. Last time Cadence announced earnings in October, they didn’t they didn’t really perform very well after that, though, they responded and traded better. It’s kind of seeing that today.
Their guidance was soft and synopsis is down in sympathy to that. Looking down the road, Adobe still a big position of ours. They don’t report until the middle of March but I still love the day and I think there’s about 1 billion in revenue from the creative cloud of air they generate of cloud that they have that could still be coming into.
It’s not counted. I still love the name, but just trimming things here a little bit. You’re not making any sort of I know you call it, you know, quote unquote, prudent portfolio management where others might say you’re making a broader statement about, you know, queasiness, if you will, with what some of these stocks have done. You had trimmed some of the other mega caps in the past, and now you’re moving on to the Amazons and the apples of the world, too.
Am I wrong when someone like Jonathan Krinsky is talking about conviction on the downside remains super high momentum areas such as semi software and mega tech in general? And that’s a really good point. And so I think that you can’t manage a portfolio all at once and I think we’ve had a really great move. It’s nice to monetize it.
But when we look to videos earnings on February 21st, I believe it is, you know, there is some seasonality that aligns with some weakness in the market in the back half of February. Now, I think everything is really being priced in here, right here, right now in video. You know, I fear that when we go into earnings, we could see the market sort of level out for a bit and consolidate.
Maybe that’s already started here after today’s CPI report. So that’s really what I’m preparing for is sort of a leveling out trade that could last over the next couple of months, raising a bit of cash to give me some opportunity, look for opportunities down the road, look for things that may have sold off already. Talked about Tesla last week.
So I’m still out there looking for four things to put this money in cash to. I’m glad you remind us of the Tesla ad two as well. Thanks for coming on, Bill Baruch, I appreciate you joining us. The other thing to consider, which we really haven’t considered all that much when it relates to these stocks, what if the A.I. hype isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be?