After sharpening his skills under the legendary currency trader George Soros, the billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller started the Duquesne Capital Management hedge fund in 1986. The fund produced 30% returns annually before he converted it into a family office, a private fund that's much easier to manage.
These days, individual investors can't get Druckenmiller to manage their money directly, but there is a way to follow his trades. The Securities and Exchange Commission requires everyone who manages over $100 million in assets to disclose their trading activity every three months.
Disclosures from the first three months of 2025 are in, and we can see that Druckenmiller has been busy. He added a dozen new positions to the Duquesne Family Office portfolio during the first quarter and more shares to over a dozen existing positions.
Flutter Entertainment(NYSE: FLUT), Docusign(NASDAQ: DOCU), and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(NYSE: TSM) were Druckenmiller's biggest bets during the first quarter. Here's what everyday investors should know about these stocks before they consider following his lead.
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1. Taiwan Semiconductor
One of Druckenmiller's biggest bets in the first quarter of 2025 was the leading manufacturer of cutting-edge semiconductors. Taiwan Semiconductor stock started 2025 dressed in green but finished the quarter significantly lower.
In the first quarter, Druckenmiller boosted Duquesne's Taiwan Semiconductor position by 457% to 491,265 shares. We don't know when he backed up the truck. We do know that shares of the chip foundry business fell to less than 22 times trailing-12-month earnings near the end of March.
Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC for short) has recovered from low points in early March thanks to first-quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations. First-quarter revenue soared 41.6% year over year. On the bottom line, earnings per share shot 60% higher.
First-quarter sales were slightly depressed from the previous quarter, but capital expenditure (capex) guidance from its biggest customers suggests enough demand for its foundry services to support modest growth from recent levels.
Nvidia is TSMC's biggest customer, and in turn, Microsoft is Nvidia's biggest customer. During the quarter ended in March, Microsoft increased property, plant, and equipment expenditures by 53% year over year to an annualized $67 billion. Citing a customer contracted backlog of $315 billion, Microsoft expects capex to keep growing.
2. Flutter Entertainment
In the first quarter, Druckenmiller boosted a tiny position in this online gambling stock by purchasing over 1 million shares. It was the 11th-largest holding in the Duquesne portfolio at the end of March.
Flutter Entertainment owns the popular FanDuel brand, which grew monthly users by 11% year over year to 4.3 million at the end of March. That works out to a market share of 43% in the U.S. sports betting market.
It is successfully leveraging its position as a leading sportsbook operator to boost its iGaming online wagering businesses. In March, the company launched a FanDuel cross-promotion that has already lifted monthly iGaming users in the U.S. above 1 million.
At the moment, the FanDuel sportsbook operates in only 23 states, and its online gambling operation in the U.S. is just getting started. Its U.S. iGaming business grew first-quarter revenue by 32% year over year to $472 million.
Outside the U.S., iGaming is responsible for a majority of revenue. In the U.S., though, it made up just 28% of first-quarter sales.
3. Docusign
In the first quarter, Druckenmiller's family office started a new position in Docusign. At a value of $87.5 million, it was the 10th largest position in the portfolio at the end of March.
Sales growth has decelerated since the pandemic, but revenue is still moving in the right direction. Subscriptions were responsible for 97% of first-quarter revenue, which grew 7% year over year.
Docusign reported a gross margin that declined slightly, but at 78.9%, this is still a highly profitable subscription-based software business. First-quarter free cash flow rose to $232.1 million, which was an impressive 33% of total revenue.
Everyone I ask has signed documents online that were managed by a Docusign competitor. Despite operating in the commoditized e-signature business, sales keep moving in the right direction because subscribers are more interested in the long-term management of those agreements.
They can't all be zingers
Druckenmiller has a tremendous track record, but he is not infallible. Among these three stocks, Taiwan Semiconductor is his largest holding. At just 3.2% of the portfolio, though, if the semiconductor cycle were to start a downward trend next week, his portfolio would hardly register the sting. If you're going to follow his lead regarding any of these stocks, it's best to make them an even smaller part of your portfolio.
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Cory Renauer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Docusign, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends Flutter Entertainment Plc and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
