Ensign Peak Advisors’ portfolio has doubled in value since its COVID-19 low, with a $4.5 billion stake in an A.I. giant.
(Illustration by Christopher Cherrington)
Even for a portfolio that already boasts incredibly large numbers, the latest sums out of the chief investment arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are impressive and record-setting.
The account managed by Salt Lake City-based Ensign Peak Advisors topped $60.9 billion in the third quarter, the highest amount it has held since the faith began disclosing its contents in 2019.
That’s after setting a record in the previous quarter, when it inched above $58.4 billion. For comparison, the new total is equivalent to spending $1 million a day for 167 years.
New disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission also reveal other milestones, including the fund’s first single stock holding well above $4 billion, with just short of 24 million shares in artificial-intelligence giant Nvidia worth $4.5 billion.
(Manu Fernandez | AP) A Nvidia booth at a 2104 trade show in Spain. The technology giant is now the largest single holding in Ensign Peak Advisors’ investment portfolio.
That Nvidia position was at $3.93 billion the quarter prior and continues to swell as the company’s fortunes have exploded with the world’s ongoing A.I. transformation.
That growing stake is one of three stock positions in the Ensign Peak portfolio now exceeding $3 billion — yet another first in nearly six years — along with shares of Microsoft worth $3.6 billion and Apple shares valued at $3 billion (along with $34 million in not-so-small change).
Ensign Peak’s SEC filing for the quarter ending in September shows those technology whoppers are among 1,697 holdings in stocks, bonds, real estate trusts, index funds and other equities.
That number of positions in the account remained unchanged from the second quarter, which also hasn’t happened before since Ensign Peak has made its once-secret holdings public via regulators.
The church’s newly appointed presiding bishop, W. Christopher Waddell, has described the immense bundle of investments as “a rainy day fund” intended to financially buffer the global faith in case of economic challenges.
Where does Ensign Peak’s portfolio stand now compared to previous quarters?
The account has officially doubled in value compared to the low it hit in the first quarter of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic reached the U.S. and markets tumbled.
The investment fund dropped by a quarterly record of $8 billion in that window, dipping to $29.8 billion. It is now 104% ahead of that low.
Though it has generally mirrored wider market gyrations since, analysis shows Ensign Peak swings between being a net seller and a net buyer of stocks. The firm was a net buyer of nearly $950 million in shares in the second quarter of this year after six quarters of net sales.
As much as $1.6 billion has been sold out of the account in a single quarter, at the end of 2024.
How does this portfolio figure in the church’s overall wealth?
Ensign Peak’s fund marks a portion of the Utah-based faith’s immense overall wealth in investments, businesses and landholdings. It represents only the U.S. equities the church holds directly and only those it is required to disclose to regulators.
In-depth analysis indicates Ensign Peak and a host of third-party funds manage total investments worth about $206 billion as of the end of last year — all on behalf of a worldwide church with 17.5 million members.
That‘s according to a website called The Widow’s Mite Report, devoted to illuminating the faith’s finances through public documents. The independent site has estimated the church’s overall wealth at about $293 billion at the close of 2024, up $28 billion from the previous year.
Another $86 billion or so of that wealth came from its operating assets, including ecclesiastical buildings, welfare farms, Brigham Young University-related operations and other landholdings.
According to Widow’s Mite, the faith’s combined assets could exceed $1 trillion sometime between 2040 and 2050.
Tue Widow’s Mite Report, an online study of the finances of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, forecasts the church could be worth $1 trillion within 25 years.
How did Ensign Peak perform compared to the S&P 500?
The S&P 500 rose 8.1% in the third quarter, while Ensign Peak, which The Widow’s Mite Report analysis shows closely tracks that index, was up 4.3%, according to the latest federal filings.
Widow’s Mite research indicates that Ensign Peak’s U.S. stock holdings have lagged significantly behind the market over the years.
What are its latest top holdings?
Much like wider markets, Ensign Peak’s portfolio has tilted heavily since its first disclosures in 2019 toward Big Tech — including the “Magnificent Seven” — Apple, Amazon, Meta (formerly Facebook), Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.
Its stake in chipmaker Nvidia has been soaring with that company’s dominance in technology supporting A.I. advances. It’s the portfolio’s top holding for a second straight quarter.
The next biggest holdings overall are Microsoft; Apple; and Meta, at $2.1 billion. Between two types of shares in the firm formerly known as Google, it now owns $2.6 billion in Alphabet.
The tech stock Broadcom remains its largest holding by value outside the Magnificent Seven, now at $1.4 billion. Other nontech stocks in its top 10 are JP Morgan at $1.07 billion; and Mastercard, at $881.6 million
Its shares in Tesla are valued at $869 million, up sharply from the previous quarter’s $669.6 million.
Note to readers •This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.
