As per its recent 13F filing, Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) has acquired 1,382,000 shares of Strategy (MSTR), valued at $172,473,600. This translates to an average cost per share of approximately $125. Given the current share price of around $175, the position is now worth roughly $241 million, resulting in an unrealized gain of approximately $69 million. As one of Canada's largest institutional investors, AIMCo manages over $140 billion in assets for Alberta's public sector pension plans.
The 13F filing, a quarterly requirement for investment managers with over $100 million in U.S. equity holdings, discloses their quarterly positions. Historical data from FactSet shows that AIMCo previously held a smaller stake in MSTR from late 2019 to mid-2020, consisting of around 198,000 shares, before entirely exiting the position in September 2020. This exit occurred shortly after CEO Michael Saylor shifted the company's focus towards Bitcoin as a corporate treasury asset in August 2020.
In some regions, institutional investors face restrictions on directly holding Bitcoin, prompting them to explore alternative investment options, such as Strategy or BlackRock's IBIT, for exposure to the cryptocurrency market.