Show Me The Money: Inside Ken Griffin's Citadel's Jaw-Dropping $7 Billion Return
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Citadel Founder and CEO Ken Griffin is one of the most successful investors of all time, managing over $62 billion in assets. He is also the founder of Citadel Securities, the largest market-making firm for the New York Stock Exchange and one of the largest designated market makers in the world. Citadel Securities is involved in one out of four stock trades placed in U.S. exchanges and nearly 40% of all retail trades.
With a net worth of $37.5 billion, Griffin is one of the richest hedge fund managers in the world and is ranked No. 37 on the Forbes real-time billionaires list. His investments have reaped significant gains, as he returned $7 billion to clients last year after its profits surged over 30%.
Griffin expects to make similar returns to investors this year, as his investment strategy generates outstanding returns. Citadel's multistrategy fund Wellington has gained nearly 15% year-to-date through November, making it one of the best-performing hedge funds this year. An inside source told Reuters that Citadel plans to divest approximately $7 billion in profits to investors this year to keep its total assets under management at $58 billion starting in 2024.
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Apart from individual stock holdings, Griffin is a big believer in passive exchange-traded fund ETF investments, as approximately 1.12% of Citadel's portfolio is invested in SPDR S&P 500 ETF, making it the company's third-largest holding.
Take a look at some of the top stocks in Griffin's portfolio.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is Citadel's biggest holding, accounting for 1.72% of the total portfolio. Microsoft's blockbuster performance this year has reaped significant profits for Griffin, as the company's shares surged over 55% this year.
Citadel also held 15.02 million shares of Activision Blizzard Inc. as of the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Griffin's fund bought shares of Activision Blizzard for approximately $87.06 per share, which were acquired by Microsoft for $95 each on Oct. 13. Griffin seems to have pocketed nearly $120 million from this acquisition.
Microsoft's expanding reach in the field of artificial intelligence has also reaped substantial income for Griffin, as the Magnificent Seven stock hiked its quarterly dividends by over 10% to $0.75 on Nov. 15. Microsoft currently pays out $3 in dividends per share, yielding 0.81% on the current price. This should make a nice payday for Griffin, who holds 5.04 million shares of Microsoft through Citadel LLC.