Baupost Group’s Seth Klarman slashed his big stake in Google and YouTube owner Alphabet before the July sell-off, according to a new regulatory filing with the SEC. The Boston-based hedge fund manager, who oversees roughly $28 billion in assets , chopped his Alphabet position by 64%, to just $195 million, by the end of June, making it his seventh largest holding, the filing revealed. Alphabet had been Baupost’s second biggest bet in the first quarter. The sale came just before the red-hot tech name turned sour. After rallying more than 20% in the second quarter, Alphabet has lost more than 12% in the current quarter as investors rotated out of high-flying megacaps. Klarman, a follower of Benjamin Graham ‘s value investing style, has drawn comparisons to Warren Buffett for his patient, disciplined approach, leading some to dub him The Oracle of Boston. The 67-year-old Harvard and Cornell grad published his now out-of-print investment guide, “Margin of Safety,” in 1991. The book now sells for thousands of dollars online. At the end of the second quarter, Klarman’s longtime holdings including John Malone’s media conglomerate Liberty Global , Fidelity National Information Services and Just Eat Takeaway remained some of his top holdings. Meanwhile, he picked up shares of health insurer Humana last quarter as well as a small stake in Capri Holdings , a merger arbitrage bet in the middle of a planned $8.5 billion acquisition by Tapestry .
