Morgan Stanley's Q4 portfolio changes reflect the characteristics of 'maintaining core technology focus, reducing index exposure, and enhancing active selection capabilities'.
According to Zhitong Finance, based on disclosures from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Morgan Stanley filed its fourth-quarter holdings report (13F) as of December 31, 2025. Overall, Morgan Stanley’s Q4 portfolio changes reflect the characteristics of 'maintaining core technology focus, reducing index exposure, and enhancing active selection capabilities'.
Statistics show that the total market value of Morgan Stanley’s fourth-quarter holdings was $1.67 trillion, compared with $1.65 trillion in the previous quarter, representing a 1.2% quarter-over-quarter increase. In the fourth quarter, the fund added 454 new stocks, increased holdings in 4,007 stocks, reduced holdings in 3,028 stocks, and exited 415 stocks. The top ten holdings accounted for 22.15% of the total portfolio value.
Among the top five heavyweights, tech giants continued to dominate the portfolio structure. Apple (AAPL.US) rose to the first position, with Morgan Stanley increasing its holdings by approximately 1.38 million shares. NVIDIA (NVDA.US) remained in second place, gaining nearly 780,000 shares. Microsoft (MSFT.US) dropped from first place last quarter to third but still received an increase of about 980,000 shares. Alphabet A (GOOGL.US) ranked fourth, with a reduction of approximately 150,000 shares; Morgan Stanley held about 122 million shares. However, Alphabet C (GOOG.US) saw an increase of 1.13 million shares, with Morgan Stanley holding about 71.84 million shares, indicating optimization of share class while maintaining overall exposure stability. Amazon (AMZN.US) ranked fifth, with a reduction of about 1.28 million shares.
In other tech stocks, Meta (META.US) received an increase of about 820,000 shares, Tesla (TSLA.US) was reduced by 360,000 shares, AMD (AMD.US) was reduced by 5.02 million shares, Palantir (PLTR.US) was reduced by 1.03 million shares, and Broadcom (AVGO.US) was reduced by nearly 44,000 shares.
Overall, Morgan Stanley did not significantly reduce its allocation weight to the technology sector but instead rebalanced through internal adjustments, favoring leading companies with strong earnings certainty and stable cash flow.
In terms of reductions, Morgan Stanley also cut healthcare stocks such as Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.US), AbbVie (ABBV.US), and Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO.US); consumer staples like Walmart (WMT.US), Procter & Gamble (PG.US), and Coca-Cola (KO.US); and energy stocks like Exxon Mobil (XOM.US) and Chevron (CVX.US).
This may reflect a decline in the attractiveness of some defensive and high-dividend sectors after the interest rate path became clearer.
In terms of increases, Morgan Stanley also added positions in JPMorgan (JPM.US), Uber Technologies (UBER.US), and the gold ETF (GLD.US).
In new positions, Morgan Stanley bought Medline (MDLN.US), TotalEnergies (TTE.US), Qnity Electronics (Q.US), Solstice (SOLS.US), and DreamWorks (MICC.US). Among these, both JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs initiated positions in TotalEnergies in Q4, while Blackrock initiated positions in Qnity Electronics and Solstice in Q4.
The top five buy positions, in terms of proportion changes, were: Google C, Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.US), Apple, Micron Technology (MU.US), and Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF (VEA.US).
The top five sell positions included: SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY.US) managed by State Street, Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ.US), Home Depot (HD.US), ServiceNow (NOW.US), and MercadoLibre (MELI.US).
The reduction in ETF positions indicates that Morgan Stanley favored gaining excess returns through individual stock allocations rather than relying on broad-based index exposure during this quarter.
