Seth Klarman
Baupost Group
Profile & Investment Philosophy
Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group kept leaning into quality platforms in Q2 2026, lifting Amazon by 20% to a 16% weight and adding another 16% to Alphabet. He nearly doubled Genuine Parts (+89%) and opened new stakes in CME Group and Axalta Coating Systems, while cutting Wesco International by 54%, Union Pacific by 23% and exiting Willis Towers Watson and Vaxcyte outright. The disclosed equity book grew to $5.4 billion across 23 positions — still only the visible slice of a fund dominated by private credit and distressed claims.
Track Record
Klarman co-founded Baupost Group in 1982 and has run it for over four decades. Long-term net returns have been reported around 18-20% annualized over the firm's history, with very limited losing years, while routinely carrying 20-50% cash. AUM grew from roughly $27 million at inception to over $30 billion at peak, making Baupost one of the largest value-oriented hedge funds in the world. His out-of-print book ‚Margin of Safety' regularly resells for thousands of dollars. He is a deeply private operator who almost never appears on financial TV and writes long, philosophical investor letters that circulate widely in the value community.
Signature Trades
Current Strategy (2026)
Baupost's Q2 2026 13F covers only US-listed equities, a small slice of the firm's actual book, which is dominated by private credit, distressed claims and real estate. On the visible equity side, Klarman continues to favor event-driven and special-situation names, with notable disclosed positions in life-sciences-tools and ‚fallen angel' growth stocks bought after sharp drawdowns, plus selective post-bankruptcy reorgs. He has trimmed mega-cap tech exposure and added to spin-offs and merger arbs where capital structures are misunderstood. The firm continues to carry a high cash and hedge book. The macro stance is cautious: he has warned in letters about elevated valuations, fiscal deficits and complacency around AI capex returns, and is positioning to deploy if a credit cycle finally turns.
BMI Counter-Take
Klarman is the closest thing the industry has to a built-in counter-cyclical buffer. The high cash, the patience, the willingness to lock up capital in illiquid claims for five-plus years — almost no retail investor can or should fully replicate that. What is replicable is the mindset: refuse to feel pressured to be fully invested, define your edge in process not narrative, and keep dry powder for forced-seller moments. The risk in his current posture is opportunity cost — Baupost has under-earned a tape that just kept ripping. But if a real credit cycle turns, his structural cash and distressed expertise become an asymmetric weapon. Long-term, we side with the discipline.
Current Portfolio
LATEST 13F 2026-06-30Latest SEC Form 13F filing. Total portfolio value: $5.42 B. Holdings: 23 positions.
| Security | Shares | Δ vs Prev | Value ($) | Portfolio % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Com Inc. | 3.74 M | +20.0% | $892 M | 16.5 % |
| Elevance Health Inc. Formerly | 1.28 M | — | $493 M | 9.11 % |
| Restaurant Brands Intl Inc. | 6.75 M | -16.4% | $490 M | 9.04 % |
| Alphabet Inc. | 1.37 M | +16.1% | $485 M | 8.95 % |
| Ferguson Enterprises Inc. | 1.45 M | +0.6% | $344 M | 6.36 % |
| Genuine Parts Co. | 2.82 M | +89.0% | $332 M | 6.13 % |
| Union Pac Corp. | 1.19 M | -23.1% | $322 M | 5.95 % |
| Visa Inc. | 701,355 | — | $241 M | 4.44 % |
| Wesco Intl Inc. | 662,881 | -53.9% | $229 M | 4.23 % |
| Aon PLC | 687,000 | -10.7% | $228 M | 4.21 % |
SOURCE: SEC Form 13F (2026-08-13). BMI Smart Money Tracker.