As per its Q1 13F filing, Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) acquired 1,382,000 shares of Strategy (MSTR) at a cost of $172,473,600. This translates to an average cost per share of approximately $125. Given MSTR's current price of around $175, the investment is now valued at roughly $241 million, resulting in an unrealized gain of about $69 million.
AIMCo, which manages over $140 billion in assets for Alberta's public sector pension plans, is one of Canada's largest institutional investors. The 13F filing, a quarterly requirement for investment managers with over $100 million in US equity holdings, reveals their portfolio compositions at the end of each quarter. Historical data from FactSet indicates that AIMCo previously held a small stake in MSTR, consisting of around 198,000 shares, between late 2019 and mid-2020. The fund completely exited this position in September 2020, 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.