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This past weekend, we found out that Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest hedge fund, nearly doubled its holding in in the third quarter. As it turns out, Bridgewater isn't alone.

As more of the fund industry's 13F reports were released, we found more giant whales like Bridgewater lurking in Nio's stock, and the surge in Nio's stock price also gave them a nice return on their investment in the third quarter.

Largest US pension boosts holdings in Nio

California Public Employees' Retirement System (Calpers), the largest public pension in the US by assets, increased its position in Nio by about 20% in the third quarter, and its holdings in Nio stock have increased in value by more than 200%.

On November 5, Calpers disclosed in a form it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that as of September 30 it held 2,294,528 Nio shares worth $48,690,000.

On August 12, Calpers disclosed that as of June 30 it held 1,913,089 Nio shares worth $14,769,000.

This means that Calpers increased its holdings in Nio by 381,439 or 19.94% during the third quarter. Calpers' position in Nio as of the end of the third quarter was up 229.68% from the end of June.

James Simons increases position in Nio

Renaissance Technologies Corp, founded by well-known hedge fund manager James Simons, increased its holdings of Nio stock by about 50% in the third quarter, increasing the value of its holdings of Nio stock by more than 300%.

Renaissance Technologies filed with the SEC on November 13 that it held 13,937,599 Nio shares worth $295,756,000 as of September 30.

In a filing on August 13, Renaissance Technologies disclosed that it held 9,300,100 Nio shares worth $71,797,000 as of June 30.

This means that during the third quarter, Renaissance Technologies increased its holdings in Nio shares by 4,637,499 or 49.87%. As of the end of the third quarter, the value of its position in Nio increased by 311.93% from the end of June.

Bridgewater almost doubles its holding in Nio

The world's largest hedge fund held 1,569,456 Nio shares worth $33,304,000 as of September 30, 2020, according to an SEC filing on November 13.

As cnTechPost reported earlier, Bridgewater held 856,026 shares in Nio ADS shares worth $6.6 million as of June 30.

The comparison of the two positions means that Bridgewater added an additional 713,430 Nio ADS shares during the third quarter, an increase of 83% from its position at the end of the second quarter.

It's worth noting that Temasek 13F filings show that the third quarter saw the liquidation of Nio and Pinduoduo, the addition of Amazon, and the building of a position in Zoom.

Nio is a luxury Chinese EV maker with three models on sale - the ES8, ES6, and the EC6, which became available in August and started delivery in October.

Nio stock is a darling of Wall Street firms. Since the end of June, a number of analysts have published bull reports on the stock, which could be behind Bridgewater's latest move.

During the third quarter, Nio shares rose 174%. since the end of September, Nio is up 110%, despite the short-seller Citron attack that caused it to plunge nearly 8% last Friday.