For a second quarter in a row, the vast portfolio managed for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by its investment firm is hovering near its five-year high in value.
That veritable mountain of U.S. stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other holdings — while only a portion of the faith’s overall wealth — is now worth a total of $56.2 billion.
Ensign Peak Advisors’ latest disclosures to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — reflecting October, November and December 2024 — show the account holds about $596 million less than it did the quarter before, when it reached $56.8 billion.
That $56 billion range remains the most the once-secret portfolio has contained since at least late 2019, the first quarter that Ensign Peak revealed its size at $37.8 billion in public filings to federal regulators.
Where does the portfolio stand now compared to prior quarters?
It now contains about 88% more in dollar terms than it did when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the U.S. in early 2020, when the fund bottomed out at $29.8 billion before rising steadily quarter by quarter, with only a few slight market-driven hiccups, to reach is current peak range.
The account has bobbed in the $54 billion to $56 billion range for two years after first piercing the $50 billion threshold at the end of 2023.
The fund now holds shares in 1,710 different investments, including stocks, bonds, real estate trusts, index funds and other equities — a spread of positions that managers have winnowed quarter to quarter from 2,308 holdings in mid-2022.
How does this portfolio feature in the church’s overall wealth?
Investments managed at Ensign Peak are only a part of the Utah-based faith’s overall wealth in investments and landholdings. They represent U.S. stocks it holds directly and is required to report to regulators.
In-depth analysis from the public documents indicates Ensign Peak and third-party funds manage total investments on behalf of the global church worth somewhere in the range of $206 billion as of the end of last year.
That’s according to The Widow’s Mite Report, a website devoted to documenting the church’s finances. It estimates the church’s overall wealth at about $293 billion at the close of 2024. That is up $28 billion from the previous year.
Another $86 billion or so of that wealth was from its operating assets, including its ecclesiastical buildings, welfare farms, Brigham Young University-related operations and other landholdings.
How did Ensign Peak perform compared to the S&P 500?
That gets a little tricky. Widow’s Mite research indicates Ensign Peak is managed to closely mirror that stock market index in terms of its holdings, and the S&P gained about 2% in the last quarter of 2024.
But analysis also shows Ensign Peak has been a net seller of U.S. stocks for several consecutive quarters, gradually cutting back its holdings. So comparing Ensign Peak’s quarterly fluctuations in total value as reported to the SEC to the S&P index’s actual market performance isn’t exactly apples to apples.
In fact, Widow’s Mite has shown that Ensign Peak’s U.S. stock holdings have lagged significantly behind the market as a result of its trading strategies.
What notable trading took place in the latest quarter?
For several years now, Ensign Peak’s portfolio has been increasingly heavy on the big technology stocks such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft.
Chipmaker Nvidia has also been one of the account’s rising stars as that company’s fortunes have shot skyward with advances in artificial intelligence. So too with electric carmaker Tesla, whose stake within Ensign Peak has also swelled in the past five years.
Ensign Peak’s latest of several quarterly disclosures, however, show its portfolio managers trimming the number of shares in those companies even as their dollar value has grown along with share prices.
The trend appears to be a straightforward move to rebalance how much those “Magnificent Seven” stocks represent of Ensign Peak’s total value.
What are its top 10 holdings?
Tech stocks now make up eight of Ensign Peak’s top 10 stakes, with its holdings in Apple and Nvidia both now worth about $3.3 billion apiece. Its Microsoft stake is at $2.8 billion.
Next in its top 10 is Google stock, at $2.2 billion, and its shares in online retailer Amazon were worth $1.97 billion. Facebook, referred to by its parent company’s name, Meta Platforms, close behind that, at $1.5 billion. Then comes semiconductor manufacturer Broadcom, at $1.05 billion, and Tesla, at $913 million.
Financial stocks JPMorgan Chase and Mastercard round out Ensign Peak’s top 10, at $862 million and $782 million, respectively.
