Latest news with #SalimRamji
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Vanguard Is Now the Top Investor in MicroStrategy Stock. Should You Buy MSTR Too?
In a surprising turn of events, Vanguard has emerged as the largest institutional shareholder of MicroStrategy (MSTR), holding 20.5 million shares worth approximately $9.26 billion, representing 8.55% ownership of the company. This development marks a shift for the world's second-largest asset manager, which previously dismissed Bitcoin (BTCUSD) as 'an immature asset class.' The investment positions Vanguard as the top holder in MicroStrategy, the world's largest publicly listed corporate Bitcoin holder, with 601,550 Bitcoin valued at $74 billion. More News from Barchart Is Palantir Stock a Buy Above $150? Coinbase Stock Just Hit a New 52-Week High. How Much Higher Can Crypto Week Take COIN? This Bullish Catalyst for Nvidia Stock Is Coming in September Get exclusive insights with the FREE Barchart Brief newsletter. Subscribe now for quick, incisive midday market analysis you won't find anywhere else. Vanguard has previously criticized Bitcoin, with executives calling the cryptocurrency 'speculative' and warning that it could create portfolio 'havoc.' While competitors like BlackRock (BLK) and Fidelity launched spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, Vanguard notably abstained from the crypto rush. The firm maintained its stance even as Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $123,000 earlier this month. Additionally, Vanguard CEO Salim Ramji recently reaffirmed that the company doesn't make bets on 'speculative assets,' such as Bitcoin. This quiet accumulation of MicroStrategy shares suggests Vanguard may be gaining indirect Bitcoin exposure while maintaining its public skepticism toward direct cryptocurrency investments, highlighting the complex dynamics between traditional asset managers and digital assets. Is MSTR Stock a Good Buy Right Now? Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, has become the poster child for Bitcoin treasury companies. Over the last five years, MSTR stock has surged more than 3,700%, outpacing the nearly 1,200% returns of Bitcoin. This remarkable outperformance stems from Strategy's aggressive Bitcoin accumulation strategy, which began in August 2020. Strategy now holds more than 600,000 BTC on its balance sheet, making it the world's largest corporate Bitcoin holder by a wide margin. Executive Chairman Michael Saylor has transformed the software company into what he calls 'the world's first Bitcoin treasury company.' Strategy's success has sparked a wave of imitators. Even failing businesses are pivoting to Bitcoin treasury strategies, hoping to revitalize their stock prices through exposure to cryptocurrency. However, this approach carries significant risks. For instance, Strategy employs debt and leverage to acquire Bitcoin, creating what some analysts describe as an ultra-leveraged Bitcoin fund. This approach only works when Bitcoin prices rise, interest rates remain manageable, and market sentiment stays positive. Is MSTR Stock Overvalued Right Now? Out of the 13 analysts covering MSTR stock, 11 recommend 'Strong Buy,' one recommends 'Moderate Buy,' and one recommends 'Strong Sell.' The average MSTR stock price target is $543.62, 27% above the current price. With Bitcoin currently priced near $120,000 acquiring meaningful positions becomes increasingly expensive, which will create a cycle of dilutive stock offerings. While Strategy has delivered exceptional returns, investors should consider whether direct Bitcoin exposure through spot ETFs might offer similar upside with fewer operational risks and complications. On the date of publication, Aditya Raghunath did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on
Bloomberg
14-07-2025
- Automotive
- Bloomberg
At Vanguard, the Man From BlackRock Ushers in a Quiet Revolution
One year and a lifetime ago, Salim Ramji left behind Hudson Yards, the blue-glass fantasy city on the Far West Side of Manhattan, and rolled into Pennsylvania in his 10-year-old SUV. After topping out at BlackRock Inc., the world's No. 1 asset-management company, Ramji was taking a new job at Vanguard Group Inc., the decidedly less-sexy No. 2.
Times
11-07-2025
- Business
- Times
How Vanguard's ‘Ten Trillion Dollar Man' would save the City
British savers could push an extra £242 billion into share investing with only a modest shift towards American levels of stock market participation, according to the head of the Vanguard investing group. In an interview with The Times, Salim Ramji suggested Britain could go down the same path as the US, where 50 years ago, fewer than 6 per cent of Americans had share-linked investments. Today the figure was 54 per cent, he said. 'It took some time in the US but history shows it can be done,' he said. 'We're encouraged by our momentum here,' he added, referring to Vanguard's mushrooming UK customer numbers, 'but more can be done in the industry to give people a fair deal.' Vanguard, which is mutually owned and has an emphasis on low-cost, index-tracking investment, has become a global phenomenon, second only to BlackRock in assets under management, with $10.5 trillion, and 50 million customers worldwide. Lower fees, simpler investing choices and access to more advice could make the UK much more comfortable with the share market and reward Britons with higher returns than from cash savings, Ramji said. Even a 'modest' 10 percentage-point swing away from savings would divert £242 billion from UK savers towards the stock market, according to a new Vanguard report. Across all OECD countries, a 10 per cent switch would push $2.1 trillion more into securities investing. The remarks coincide with confirmation that Rachel Reeves has retreated from an immediate cut to the £20,000 limit on annual contributions into cash ISAs. The idea had been that this would nudge savers towards more adventurous stocks and shares ISAs. In spite of privatisations and demutualisation programmes that created millions of novice stock owners in the UK, many in Britain remain sceptical or scared about share market investment. While Americans have 12 per cent of their financial assets in savings accounts, Britons have 32 per cent, according to Vanguard. Americans have 58 per cent of their financial assets in shares and equity related funds, while the figure for Britain is 17 per cent. Interview Salim Ramji proudly recites the names of Horatio Nelson's battleships: 'Orion, Victory, Defence, Audacious, Zealous,' he intones. Ramji heads Vanguard Group, the American investment giant named after Nelson's flagship at the Battle of the Nile, HMS Vanguard. In Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Vanguard's headquarters buildings are named after the sister vessels that blasted the French out of the water 227 years ago. 'And I work on Admiral Nelson Drive!' Ramji adds with delight. He describes how he couldn't resist stopping his car that morning in Trafalgar Square to take a snap of the naval hero on his column. • I want to invest in Europe's comeback. Where do I start? We are in the Vanguard offices a couple of miles east in the City of London, where Ramji is paying a low-profile visit. He is known by some as the Ten Trillion Dollar Man because Vanguard manages $10.5 trillion. That is more than any other institution in the world apart from the sector gorilla BlackRock, where he used to work, which weighs in at $11.6 trillion. While his opposite number there, Larry Fink, is courted on the world stage, however, Ramji chooses a much lower profile. He is only here in London to meet a couple of clients and rally the staff, or 'crew' as he calls them in what will not be the last of his nautical metaphors. Maintaining a steady course through stormy weather features too. No, he will not be seeing anyone from the government, he says to my surprise. Ramji is surely just the kind of fellow that Rachel Reeves should be courting as she seeks to convert deep-pocketed foreign companies to the merits of UK investing. Not that Ramji needs much convincing. He loves the UK, he says, and loves London as a hub for his European operations. 'London will continue to be absolutely critical to us going forward. It is a phenomenal talent market. It's a vibrant place to do business. It's fantastic. You are in close proximity to, you know, so many other partners that we work with.' He employs a thousand people in the City and recently opened a back-office operation in Manchester with another hundred deckhands. As a market for Vanguard, the UK is also proving to be a bit of a honeypot too. The group is by far the fastest growing direct-to-customer investment platform for small investors, signing up 60,000 more so far this year to reach 750,000. Last year it bagged more clients than Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell combined, although its customers tend to have less to invest. 'Eighty per cent of all UK independent financial advisers also use Vanguard,' he says, dressed casually in blue linen jacket and open-neck shirt. In total £191 billion is managed out of London, where Ramji cut his teeth as a junior lawyer with Clifford Chance thirty years ago. Ramji, 53, a Canadian with Indian roots, is a proselytiser for cheap, simple, low-cost investing of the kind offered by index-tracking fund managers such as Vanguard. 'Don't try to find the needle, buy the haystack,' he says not once but half a dozen times in the course of our interview. He describes how in his first year in the new job he has been ferreting about in the archives of Vanguard to learn more about its founder, Jack Bogle, the man regarded as the godfather of index investing. It was Bogle, a naval history nut who died in 2019, who chose a drawing of HMS Vanguard for the company's original logo, a design dropped only in 2020. Bogle's haystack philosophy was revolutionary in 1975, Ramji says. 'But it turned out to be empirically, very good advice, not just in the United States but in other markets across the world.' Passive investment funds that blindly track indices outperform most actively managed fund managers over most time periods after taking account of fees. That, he argues, has been a fabulously powerful force in democratising investment. When Vanguard was founded, just under 6 per cent of Americans owned shares either directly or in mutual funds. Today the percentage is 54 per cent. 'Fifty years ago investing was the preserve of the very affluent. One of the things we're proudest of at Vanguard is really democratising investment.' And he is confident that a similar trajectory could be followed in Britain. He adds, however, that that will require three things from the UK investment industry: lower fees, a big drive to reduce complexity and jargon and more help for novices. On fees, he says: 'The average fee on a Vanguard fund in the US is about six or seven basis points [hundredths of 1 per cent], whereas the industry is at about 44. In Europe the average fee on Vanguard's funds is 14 basis points and the industry is about 66.' He is not against active managers, he says: indeed, $1.8 trillion of Vanguard's assets are actively managed, albeit by outside asset management houses including Schroders. 'There's a lot of smart people [in active management], they just charge too much.' • Why it's worth getting on the British comeback trail Vanguard is trying to tackle the excessive complexity of share market investment. Prospective novice investors are just overwhelmed. Jon Cleborne, Vanguard's head of Europe, chips in: 'When you have to make those tough decisions, sometimes inertia just kicks in and it's easier to not make any decisions at all.' Vanguard is a big fan of the proposed new targeted support regime: the new buzzword in the UK for firms being allowed to make suggestions to clients without having to do a costly full financial fact check of their circumstances, a well-meaning but disastrous policy that has meant that 92 per cent of adults get no help at all. Cleborne again: 'We think it could be transformative for the UK investing public.' Ramji admits that passive investing 'piggybacks' off the analytical skills of active fund managers, but argues that there is huge scope for it to grow further. He is now exploring whether Vanguard could push into private assets and recently signed a partnership deal with Blackstone, which specialises in illiquid assets such as private equity and private credit. He does not sound entirely convinced: there are 'a lot of howevers', he says, not least how packaged-up private assets could fit with Vanguard's low-cost ethos. He sounds keener on pushing further into bonds for retail investors. 'They don't have to be as complicated and as expensive as they are,' the former McKinsey management consultant says disapprovingly as he heads out of the door, on his quest to keep things shipshape.
Economist
03-07-2025
- Business
- Economist
A visit to the man with $10trn under management
In 1975, Jack Bogle set up Vanguard with a single guiding principle: drive down fees for ordinary investors with funds that buy all of the stocks in an index, like the S&P 500. It made him unpopular with active investors who charged high fees and often underperformed the market. But among Vanguard investors, some of whom style themselves as 'Bogleheads', it earned him a cult-like status. Salim Ramji, the first outsider to lead Vanguard, is now at the helm, leading a charge into new higher-fee products. Will it work? This week, we pay him a visit.
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Vanguard, BlackRock Map Out Global ETF Ambitions
Vanguard flew its chief executive Salim Ramji to London this week for a large client gathering with around 400 guests, one of a series of events marking the 50th anniversary of the business founded by Jack Bogle. Ramji was unable to attend the media reception following the client meeting held at the Frameless art gallery near Marble Arch, but several other members of the senior leadership team, including Jon Cleborne, head of Europe, and Joe Davis, who wears two hats as global chief economist and global head of the investment strategy group, were present. The effervescent Davis discussed how artificial intelligence and other megatrends, such as demographic changes, geopolitical tensions and rising government debt, would shape investing and asset allocation choices, the theme of his new book "Coming into View." He also revealed that Vanguard already employs more than 1,000 AI applications across its business, including core investment functions. Opportunities for the press to meet Vanguard's top leaders are tightly controlled, which is curious given Ramji is an accomplished public speaker overseeing remarkably strong new business growth. Vanguard's ETFs registered $147.7 billion in global net inflows already in the first four months of this year, ahead of its main rival BlackRock, which gathered $114.7 billion in worldwide new ETF business, according to data provider ETFGI. And Vanguard's oft-repeated core message, 'markets change, stay the course,' has again been shown to be effective advice with the S&P 500 rebounding more than 20% and entering a new bull market since its low after President Donald Trump's trade tariffs were unveiled on 'Liberation Day.' Vanguard has historically taken a distinctly low-key approach to promoting its business, but it has stepped up client engagement initiatives centered around its 50th anniversary. These include a burst of advertising in U.S. airports and train stations, cover wraps on the New York Times newspaper and ads on the NYT and Bloomberg websites. Familiar Vanguard themes—the importance of controlling investment costs and 'Helping investors keep more of their returns since 1975'—are highlighted in these advertisements. The use of aggressive price competition on fund fees, which has helped to drive down expense ratios across the U.S. fund industry—known as the 'Vanguard effect'—is featured in a new presentation on its website that also highlights other milestones, such as the start of its international business in 1996 when an office was opened in Melbourne, Australia. Vanguard's most important rival BlackRock has also just released a new advertising campaign with the tag 'The Market is Yours' to mark the 25th anniversary of the iShares ETF brand. A cynic might wonder if the new iShares promotion has been timed as a spoiler to Vanguard's advertising. Journalists are notoriously cynical. But the adverts do provide a contrast between the approach of both companies. Vanguard's focus is repeating familiar key messages while the distinctly content-light iShares film, directed by the creator of numerous corporate adverts Reynald Gresset, is all about the 'vibes,' as kids say these days. Far more detailed was the recent BlackRock investor day, where the entire senior leadership of the company rammed home its ambitions to grow in active ETFs, crypto, artificial intelligence, model portfolios and private markets by 2030 in a carefully orchestrated event that stretched over almost five hours. BlackRock aims to grow its revenues from the $20 billion reported last year to at least $35 billion in 2030 and to double its market value from $140 billion to $280 billion, excluding any boost from positive market movements. The phenomenal growth of the iShares ETF platform since it was acquired from Barclays in 2009 has provided BlackRock with the financial power to make the trio of acquisitions—Global Infrastructure Partners, credit investment shop HPS Investment Partners and the private fund data provider Preqin—that will now expand its reach deep into private markets where investors pay higher fees. While BlackRock's pivot toward private markets has garnered a great deal of media attention, the company also emphasised its aggressive ambitions for future ETF growth. Active ETFs were highlighted as a structural growth target, which BlackRock wants to develop into a $500 million revenue stream. BlackRock also reiterated that the European ETF market had reached an inflection point for adoption in 2024 and has now shifted onto a similar growth track to that taken by the U.S. market over the previous decade. BlackRock's projections suggest that if the European ETF market does maintain its growth momentum—a big assumption—then it would reach the $10 trillion mark sometime in the early 2040s. Such projections are highly debatable given the fragmentation problems that have curtailed growth across Europe's ETF ecosystem and remain unresolved, but earlier BlackRock forecasts for ETF asset growth, which might have appeared improbable at the time, have turned out to be accurate. More broadly, the challenges that BlackRock is presenting across multiple fronts are in clear view for all of its rivals to see. Vanguard and all of the competitors to BlackRock across the investment industry certainly have a huge fight ahead. This article was originally published at sister publication ETF | © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
