First action in a year and a half, BlackRock significantly increased its holdings in PDD's US stocks by nearly 30% in the third quarter
PDD's US stocks surged more than 8% on Tuesday. During the recent period of favorable Chinese policies, PDD soared 50% in the ten trading days leading up to October 7th
The latest disclosed documents show that the asset management giant BlackRock significantly increased its holdings of Pinduoduo's US stocks in the third quarter, marking the first adjustment to BlackRock's Pinduoduo holdings in a year and a half.
In a filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on October 22, BlackRock disclosed that its holdings of Pinduoduo American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) increased to 33.01 million shares, representing 2.4% of the total Pinduoduo ADRs outstanding. The filing indicates that this holding disclosure was triggered by transactions on September 30.
According to data compiled by Bloomberg, the above-mentioned change in holdings means that BlackRock increased its Pinduoduo ADR holdings by 7.3 million shares in the third quarter of this year. This increase in shareholding is equivalent to a 28.4% increase compared to the end of the second quarter, representing an increase of nearly 30%.
This is the first change in BlackRock's holdings of Pinduoduo ADRs since the fourth quarter of 2022. From the first quarter of last year to the second quarter of this year, BlackRock's holdings of Pinduoduo remained unchanged at 25.71 million ADRs.
Pinduoduo's U.S. stocks surged in early trading on Tuesday, hitting a new daily high with an intraday increase of 8.3%. However, it later gave back more than half of the gains, poised to close higher for the third consecutive trading day.
Pinduoduo's second-quarter performance announced at the end of August this year continued to show strong growth, with commission income for the quarter more than doubling year-on-year, driving a revenue increase of 86% year-on-year, bringing it closer to breaking the one trillion yuan revenue mark, and net profit increasing by 1.4 times year-on-year. However, when releasing the financial report, Pinduoduo took the initiative to "cut itself", warning the company to prepare for sacrificing short-term profits and not distributing dividends or repurchasing shares in the coming years. On the day of the financial report release, August 26, Pinduoduo's U.S. stocks plummeted by 28.5%.
However, stimulated by recent favorable Chinese policies, Chinese concept stocks led by Pinduoduo have rebounded significantly. Wall Street News mentioned last week that from September 24 to October 7, in the span of ten trading days, Pinduoduo's stock price rose by about 50%, becoming one of the leaders among Chinese concept stocks. As of the close on October 16, Pinduoduo's market value had recovered by $53 billion (approximately RMB 377.44 billion) after the sharp drop in the financial report.
In fact, shortly after Pinduoduo released its second-quarter report, Goldman Sachs expressed strong confidence in a research report at the end of August, giving Pinduoduo a buy rating. The report stated:
"We maintain a buy rating on Pinduoduo based on its advertising technology capabilities (ROI-based marketing tools) and China's cost-competitive suppliers/merchants/supply chain, coupled with favorable risk-return characteristics. Our 12-month target price is $184, representing an 84% upside from the current level, and the current market value does not include the valuation of Temu."