The Most Popular Stocks in Hedge Fund Portfolios

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The Most Popular Stocks in Hedge Fund Portfolios

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

In 2023, hedge funds managed over $4 trillion in assets, hitting a record high.

While the industry saw tepid returns over much of the last decade, it has seen a resurgence in interest amid a rising rate environment. Often, hedge funds cater to an investor base of pension funds, high-net worth investors, and university endowments.

The above graphic shows the most popular hedge fund investments, based on 13F filings via WhaleWisdom.

The Top Hedge Fund Investments

Overall, Microsoft stands as the most popular company, with 874 hedge funds holding the stock.

As the megacap ramps up its AI offerings, it is capturing significant interest from hedge funds. In 2024, Microsoft shares are up over 20% as of June 24, sitting near all-time highs. Like Microsoft, a substantial share of hedge funds hold big tech stocks such as Amazon, Alphabet, and Nvidia.

Here are the most commonly held stocks in hedge fund portfolios as of the first quarter of 2024:

RankCompanyShare of Hedge Funds
Holding the StockNumber of Hedge Funds
Holding the Stock 1Microsoft44%874 2Amazon42%835 3Alphabet Class A38%745 4Apple36%714 5Meta36%710 6Nvidia34%675 7Alphabet Class C32%631 8Visa31%617 9JPMorgan Chase & Co29%570 10Berkshire Hathaway
Class B28%564 11Mastercard26%521 12UnitedHealth Group26%518 13Johnson & Johnson26%517 14ExxonMobil Corp25%499 15Eli Lilly & Co.25%498 Advertisement

Ranking in fourth is Apple, with 36% of hedge funds investing in the company.

On a net basis, hedge funds added over 26 million shares of Apple to their portfolios over the quarter, the highest among the group. Hedge funds are increasingly warming up to the stock ahead of Apple introducing AI enhancements to its iPhones this year or in 2025.

By contrast, hedge funds made the greatest reductions in Nvidia and Alphabet on a net basis. Michael Burry’s Scion Asset Management LLC was among the hedge funds

Visualized: The Price of Carbon Around the World in 2024

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June 25, 2024 Article & Editing Graphics & Design Visualized: The Price of Carbon Around the World

Only 1% of global emissions are priced high enough to meet the Paris Agreement’s temperature target in 2024.

This chart, created in partnership with the National Public Utilities Council, shows carbon prices around the world using data from the World Bank.

Let’s start by looking at what carbon pricing is and how it works.

What Is Carbon Pricing?

Carbon pricing is an environmental strategy aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by assigning a monetary cost to carbon emissions. 

The most common types of carbon pricing are emissions trading systems (ETS) and carbon taxes. The former sets an overall emission limit and allocates permits for trading, whereas the latter imposes a fee on emissions to increase their cost and incentivize reductions.

According to the World Bank, Finland and Poland were the first countries to implement a federal carbon price in 1990. The most recent countries, on the other hand, were Australia, Hungary, and Indonesia, implementing carbon pricing in 2023.

Carbon Prices, By Region

In 2017, the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition suggested that carbon prices should range from $50–100/tCO2 by 2030 to meet the Paris Climate Agreement’s temperature goal.

Fast forward to 2024, the global average carbon price is $32/tCO2—$18 short of the minimum that is needed in six years.

Carbon pricing varies significantly across different regions. Europe and Central Asia have the highest number of pricing initiatives out of any other world region, with an average price of $50/tCO2.

In the U.S. and Canada, the average price is slightly lower at $48 per ton, with 16 initiatives in place. North America’s approach is characterized by both federal and state/provincial systems, including notable schemes like Canada’s federal carbon pricing and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the United States.

RegionAverage Carbon PriceNumber of Initiatives Europe & Central Asia$5026 U.S. & Canada$4816 Latin America & Caribbean$2411 East Asia & Pacific$1118 Africa$101

The European Union’s ETS system was introduced in 2005. The initiative led to a 16% decrease in covered emissions between 2022 and 2023 and generated $47 billion. Several EU member countries have also implemented their own carbon pricing mechanisms to address sectors outside the EU ETS’s scope or to generate

Decamping To Rhode Island

The Capital Spectator will be in Rhode Island for the remainder of the week. The diversion to the Ocean State will end on Monday, July 1, when the standard fare resumes. Cheers!

Mapped: The World’s Least Affordable Housing Markets in 2024

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June 24, 2024 Graphics/Design:

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The World’s Least Affordable Housing Markets in 2024

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Many cities around the world have become very expensive to buy a home in, but which ones are the absolute most unattainable?

In this graphic, we highlight a number of housing markets that are deemed to be “impossibly unaffordable” in 2024, ranked by their median price-to-income ratio.

This data comes from the Demographia International Housing Affordability Report, which is produced by the Chapman University Center for Demographics and Policy.

Data and Key Takeaway

The median price-to-income ratio compares median house price to median household income within each market. A higher ratio (higher prices relative to incomes) means a city is less affordable.

See the following table for all of the data we used to create this graphic. Note that this analysis covers 94 markets across eight countries: Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

RankMetropolitan MarketCountryMedian price-to-income
ratio 1Hong Kong (SAR)🇨🇳 China16.7 2Sydney🇦🇺 Australia13.8 3Vancouver🇨🇦 Canada12.3 4San Jose🇺🇸 U.S.11.9 5Los Angeles🇺🇸 U.S.10.9 6Honolulu🇺🇸 U.S.10.5 7Melbourne🇦🇺 Australia9.8 8San Francisco🇺🇸 U.S.9.7 9Adelaide🇦🇺 Australia9.7 10San Diego🇺🇸 U.S.9.5 11Toronto🇨🇦 Canada9.3 12Auckland🇳🇿 New Zealand8.2

According to the Demographia report, cities with a median price-to-income ratio of over 9.0 are considered “impossibly unaffordable”.

We can see that the top city in this ranking, Hong Kong, has a ratio of 16.7. This means that the median price of a home is 16.7 times greater than the median income.

Which Cities are More Affordable?

On the flipside, here are the top 12 most affordable cities that were analyzed in the Demographia report.

RankMetropolitan MarketCountryMedian price-to-income
ratio 1Pittsburgh🇺🇸 U.S.3.1 2Rochester🇺🇸 U.S.3.4 2St. Louis🇺🇸 U.S.3.4 4Cleveland🇺🇸 U.S.3.5 5Edmonton🇨🇦 Canada3.6 5Buffalo🇺🇸 U.S.3.6 5Detroit🇺🇸 U.S.3.6 5Oklahoma City🇺🇸 U.S.3.6 9Cincinnati🇺🇸 U.S.3.7

Visualizing Saudi Aramco’s Massive Oil Reserves

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June 24, 2024 Article/Editing: Graphics/Design:

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Visualizing Saudi Aramco’s Massive Oil Reserves

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Saudi Aramco controls 259 billion barrels worth of oil and gas reserves, which is unmatched by any other company globally. This is a key factor in the company’s massive $1.8 trillion valuation.

To illustrate that, this chart compares the proved reserves of major oil companies as of 2022. Data was compiled by Statista from various company reports.

Crown Jewel

Saudi Aramco is the national oil company of Saudi Arabia. As of 2024, it is the sixth-largest company in the world by market capitalization.

Its oil reserves are over four times bigger than the reserves of all the other six companies on our list combined.

CompanyProved reserves (billion barrels of oil equivalent) Saudi Aramco258.8 ExxonMobil17.7 Chevron11.2 Total Energies10.2 Shell9.6 BP7.2 Eni6.6

Behind Saudi Aramco, American company ExxonMobil comes in second with 17.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent, followed by another American company, Chevron, with 11.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Saudi Aramco produces 9 million barrels of oil a day, more than any other firm and nearly a tenth of the world’s total.

In addition, the state-run oil giant is the world’s most profitable company, generating $722 billion in profits between 2016 and 2023.

Saudi Aramco is also expected to play a big part in Saudi Arabia’s plans to diversify its economy and reduce oil dependence. Recently, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman confirmed that the kingdom is in talks to sell a 1% stake in the state oil giant, which could help fund the country’s projects in clean energy and technology.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out this graphic, which ranks oil production by country.

GDP Per Capita, by G7 Country (2019-2029F)

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June 24, 2024 Graphics/Design:

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GDP Per Capita Projections for the G7

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

GDP per capita takes the total economic output of a country in a year, and divides it by the total population, providing a measure of a country’s economic performance and living standards on a per person basis.

In this graphic, we’ve visualized GDP per capita for G7 nations, from 2019 to 2029 (forecasted). All figures come from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and are as of April 2024.

Data and Key Takeaways

The data we used to create this graphic can also be found in the table below.

GDP per capita
(current USD)Canada
🇨🇦France
🇫🇷Germany
🇩🇪Italy
🇮🇹Japan
🇯🇵UK
🇬🇧U.S.
🇺🇸 2019$46,431$41,925$46,810$33,628$40,548$42,713$65,505 2020$43,573$40,529$46,712$31,789$40,172$40,246$64,367 2021$52,521$45,161$51,461$36,402$40,114$46,704$70,996 2022$55,613$42,306$48,756$35,043$34,005$45,730$77,192 2023$53,548$46,001$52,727$38,326$33,806$49,099$81,632 2024F$54,866$47,359$54,291$39,580$33,138$51,075$85,373 2025F$57,021$48,631$56,439$40,701$34,922$53,627$87,978 2026F$58,907$50,143$58,472$41,612$36,643$56,759$90,903 2027F$60,729$51,571$60,264$42,604$38,065$59,870$94,012 2028F$62,636$53,040$61,965$43,835$39,820$63,279$97,231 2029F$64,653$54,388$63,551$45,096$40,949$66,911$100,580

From this data, we can see that the U.S. has managed a very strong post-COVID recovery relative to its G7 peers. While Canada also saw a strong resurgence in 2021 and 2022, its GDP per capita actually fell in 2023.

This is attributed to the country’s high levels of immigration in 2023, which helped boost population by 3.2% (1,271,000 people). Because this increase outpaced economic growth, Canada’s per capita output decreased.

Looking towards the future, the IMF believes that the U.S. will reach a GDP per capita of $101,000 by 2029, which is significantly higher than any other G7 nation. It also believes that the UK will perform well in the second half of this decade, climbing from fourth to second place among this peer group of countries.

Learn More About GDP from Visual Capitalist

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out Ranked: The Top 6 Economies by Share of Global GDP (1980-2024).

US Stocks Are (Still) Leading The Major Asset Classes In 2024

There was a brief period earlier this year when US shares gave up the leadership crown to commodities, but American stocks have retaken the performance throne in June, based on a set of ETFs through Friday’s close (June 21).

Vanguard Total US Stock Market ETF (VTI) closed last week with a strong 13.5% year-to-date gain. In close pursuit in the number-two slot: commodities (GCC), which had been leading in 2024 back in April and early May.

Stocks ex-US are well behind their US counterparts, but respectable gains in offshore shares are still conspicuous this year. Equities in emerging markets (VWO) have rebounded and are currently posting a third-place win in 2024 of 7.5%. Shares in developed markets ex-US (VEA) are in fourth place with a 4.0% year-to-date increase.

US bonds have recovered over the past two months but have yet to post a meaningful year-to-date gain. Vanguard Total Bond Market (BND) is essentially flat in 2024.

There are plenty of losers elsewhere in global markets, including property shares and foreign bonds. The biggest decline is currently found in developed-market government bonds ex-US (BWX), which is in the hole by 6.2%.

Notably, a forecast-free, passive measure of holding all the world’s markets in market-value weights continues to generate solid results this year. This unmanaged benchmark holds all the major asset classes (except cash) in market-value weights via ETFs and represents a competitive measure for multi-asset-class-portfolio strategies. GMI is currently up 9.7% in 2024, outperforming all its components except two: US stocks and commodities.

A Look at Cristiano Ronaldo’s Euro Records

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June 23, 2024 Graphics/Design:

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A Look at Cristiano Ronaldo’s Euro Records

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Cristiano Ronaldo has the most European Championship appearances, with Euro 2024 being his sixth tournament for Portugal.

Since his debut in 2003, Ronaldo has been a pivotal figure for his national team. He consistently delivers standout performances and helped the squad win the 2016 edition of the tournament.

This graphic showcases some of the Portuguese star’s records based on UEFA data and other sources.

Top Scorer and Most Matches Played

Cristiano Ronaldo is the top goalscorer in the competition, with 55 goals across six Euros, far ahead of English striker Harry Kane (28) and Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku (27). Additionally, he holds the record for the most Euro matches in history, having played 70 as of June 21, 2024.

Cristiano RonaldoStats Euros Appearances6 Titles1 (2016) Goals55 Penalties Scored11 Euro Games70 Total Games for Portugal208

At age 39, Ronaldo could become the second player to win multiple European Championships as captain, joining Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas, who won in 2008 and 2012.

Beyond his on-field achievements, Ronaldo’s impact extends off the pitch. With $136 million in annual earnings, he is the highest-paid athlete in the world. His financial success is matched by his influence on social media, where he is the world’s top influencer with 919 million followers.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out this graphic, which visualizes the highest earning athletes in seven professional sports.

Chart: Which Countries Eat the Most Instant Noodles?

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June 23, 2024 Graphics/Design:

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Chart: Which Countries Eat the Most Instant Noodles?

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

The world collectively consumed 120 billion instant noodle servings in 2023. But which countries ate the most?

We visualize the country-level breakdown with estimated figures from the World Instant Noodles Association (WINA).

ℹ️ Established in March 1997, WINA collects and distributes data related to instant noodles for safe consumption and quality. Ranked: Countries by their Instant Noodle Consumption

Unsurprisingly, the now second-most populous country in the world, China, (along with Hong Kong SAR) ate about 42 billion instant noodle servings in 2023. This works out to about 30 noodle helpings per person in the year.

RankCountryRegionInstant Noodle
Servings Consumed 1🇨🇳 China and
🇭🇰 Hong Kong
Asia42.2B 2🇮🇩 IndonesiaAsia14.5B 3🇮🇳 IndiaAsia8.7B 4🇻🇳 VietnamAsia8.1B 5🇯🇵 JapanAsia5.8B 6🇺🇸 U.S.North America5.1B 7🇵🇭 PhilippinesAsia4.4B 8🇰🇷 South KoreaAsia4.0B 9🇹🇭 ThailandAsia4.0B 10🇳🇬 NigeriaAfrica3.0B 11🇧🇷 BrazilSouth America2.6B 12🇷🇺 RussiaEurope/Asia2.2B N/A🌍 Rest of WorldOther15.6B

Staying in Asia, Indonesia (14.5 billion servings), India (8.7 billion), Vietnam (8.1 billion) and Japan (5.8 billion) make up the top five.

The U.S. is the top ranked country by instant noodle consumption (5.1 billion servings) from outside Asia. There are also only two non-Asian countries in the top 10, with the other being Nigeria (3 billion portions).

Russia is the top ranked European country for instant noodle consumption, 12th overall with 2.2 billion servings.

Noodle Preferences Around the World

There’s a large variety in instant noodle brands worldwide, catering to different populations’ specific cultural and dietary habits.

For example, given Indonesia’s largely Muslim population, most noodle products are halal.

On the other hand, vegetable and tomato-based soups are eaten the most in India due to its large vegetarian population.

Meanwhile, Vietnam prefers a shrimp-flavored broth along with pho rice noodles, which are popular in the country.

To end with a fun fact, instant noodles sold in the U.S. are generally

Ranked: The 10 Highest-Grossing Concert Tours of All Time

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June 22, 2024

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The 10 Highest-Grossing Concert Tours

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has been a trending topic worldwide since its first show in March 2023.

The tour has already become the highest-grossing ever, surpassing $1 billion in revenue, outpacing Elton John’s five-year farewell tour, which ended in 2023 and grossed $939 million.

In addition, the Eras Tour also set various stadium records, including the highest three-day attendance totals ever at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium (217,635) and Dallas’ AT&T Stadium (210,607), and single-day records at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium (71,000), Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium (73,117), and Seattle’s Lumen Field (72,171).

Here, we list the top 10 highest-grossing concert tours of all time. The data comes from Billboard, Forbes, and Pollstar rankings. Figures are not adjusted for inflation.

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Grosses $17 Million Per Show

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour grossed about $1.04 billion from 60 shows performed in 2023, and that’s not including any numbers from the ongoing tour in 2024.

Meanwhile, Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour comes in second with almost $1 billion but with 328 shows—more than five times the number of shows performed in the Eras Tour in this comparison.

RankArtistTour NameGross Revenue 1Taylor SwiftEras Tour (2023-24)$1.04 billion (so far) 2Elton JohnFarewell Yellow Brick Road Tour (2018-20, 2022-23)$939 million 3Ed SheeranThe ÷ (Divide) Tour (2017-19)$776 million 4U2U2 360° Tour (2009-11)$736 million 5ColdplayMusic of the Spheres World Tour (2022-23)$618 million 6Harry StylesLove on Tour (2021-23)$617 million 7Guns N’ RosesNot In This Lifetime… Tour (2016-19)$584 million 8BeyoncéRenaissance World Tour (2023)$580 million 9The Rolling StonesA Bigger Bang Tour (2005-07)$558 million 10The Rolling StonesNo Filter Tour (2017-19, 2021)$547 million

In third place, Ed Sheeran’s The ÷ (Divide) Tour (2017-19) amassed $776 million, followed by U2’s 360° Tour (2009-11), which had $736 million. Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour (2022-23), with $618 million, completes the top five.

Combined, The Rolling Stones’ A Bigger Bang Tour (2005-07) and No Filter Tour (2017-19, 2021) also generated over