After hovering around five-year high over the last half of 2024, the immense portfolio of U.S. stocks, bonds and mutual funds managed for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took nearly a $4 billion plunge in value.
New reports from the global faith’s investment arm, Salt Lake City-based Ensign Peak Advisors, to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — for January, February and March — show the investment account holds $52.3 billion, which is $3.98 billion lower than it was at the end of the year.
That‘s down from a $56 billion peak range the once-secret portfolio reached over the two prior quarters, the most it had contained since at least late 2019, when funds managers with Ensign Peak first revealed its size at $37.8 billion in public filings to federal regulators.
U.S. markets roiled with uncertainty in the first quarter of this year as President Donald Trump’s roller-coaster proposals for high import tariffs on virtually all foreign goods sent the world economy into turmoil.
Where does the portfolio stand now compared to prior quarters?
The investment account now holds about 75% more in dollar terms than it did when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the U.S. in early 2020. The fund fell to $29.8 billion before rising steadily quarter by quarter, with only a few slight market-driven reversals, to reach its peak range as 2024 closed.
The account had fluctuated in the $54 billion to $56 billion range for almost two years after first surpassing the $50 billion threshold at the end of 2023.
It is now slightly below where it was at the end of 2022.
The fund currently holds shares in 1,689 different investments, including stocks, bonds, real estate trusts, index funds and other equities. That spread was as high as 2,308 holdings in mid-2022. The latest report shows fund managers have continued a pattern of winnowing individual investments, with the portfolio shedding 21 of them amid last quarter’s volatility.
How does this portfolio feature in the church’s overall wealth?
Investments managed at Ensign Peak are only a portion of the Utah-based faith’s overall wealth in investments, operating businesses and landholdings. They represent only U.S. equities it holds directly and is required to report to regulators.
In-depth analysis based on public documents indicates Ensign Peak and a host of third-party funds manage total investments on behalf of the worldwide church of 17.5 million members 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 faith’s finances. It estimates 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 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?
Widow’s Mite research has documented that Ensign Peak is managed to closely mirror that stock market index in terms of its holdings.
But analysis also shows the church fund has been a net seller of U.S. stocks for several consecutive quarters, gradually cutting back its holdings. So it‘s a little imprecise to compare Ensign Peak’s quarterly ups and downs in total value to the S&P index’s market performance.
Widow’s Mite has shown that Ensign Peak’s U.S. stock holdings actually have lagged significantly behind the market as a result of its trading strategies.
With that in mind, the S&P 500 slumped by 4.6% in the first quarter of this year while the Ensign Peak account dropped by 7.09% in value.
What notable trading took place in the latest quarter?
Virtually since its first public report to the SEC, reflecting its holdings at the end of 2019, Ensign Peak’s portfolio has been heavy on big technology stocks, these days referred to as “the Magnificent Seven” — Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.
Its stake in chipmaker Nvidia has increased substantially with that company’s dominance in chips that support advances in artificial intelligence. The same had also been true of electric carmaker Tesla, whose stake within Ensign Peak had also increased in the past five years.
But the account‘s holdings in that firm have slipped in value along with the company’s fortunes in recent quarters, with the church fund now holding $586 million in Tesla shares, down from $913 million at the end of 2024.
The fund, in fact, slimmed down the number of shares it owns in nearly all of those tech stocks during the first quarter of 2025, the latest report shows. Together, the holdings now represent about $10.2 billion of Ensign Peak’s overall value, down from $11.9 billion a quarter before.
What are its latest top holdings?
Tech stocks now make up a half-dozen of Ensign Peak’s most valuable holdings, though its stakes in Apple and Nvidia have both dipped below $3 billion apiece for the first time since the start of 2024, at $2.8 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively.
Its Microsoft stake now stands at $2.5 billion in value, down from $2.8 billion the previous quarter.
Two types of Google shares in the portfolio were valued together at $1.7 billion, down from $2.2 billion, while the fund’s holdings in online retailer Amazon were worth $1.69 billion at the end of March, down from $1.97 billion in December.
Ensign Peak holdings in social media giant Facebook, known by its parent company’s name, Meta Platforms, were worth $1.46 billion, down from $1.57 billion.
Also among its top holdings at the end of March were financial stocks JPMorgan Chase and Mastercard, valued at at $849 million and $795 million, respectively, as well as UnitedHealth Group, at $789 million, and drugmaker Eli Lilly, at $739 million.
