The largest pension in the United States is Betting on Covid-Vaccine Maker Moderna, Costco Stock

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Recently, the largest public pension in the United States made major changes to its investment portfolio.

California’s public employee retirement system bought more

Modern

(ticker: MRNA),

Costco

Wholesale (COST) i

Carnival (CCL)

and reduce your investment in

Coca Cola

(KO) in the second quarter.

Calpers, as the pension is known, disclosed the transactions, among others, in a form submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. He declined to comment on the changes in investment.

The pension, which manages nearly $ 500 billion in assets, bought an additional 82,241 shares of Moderna to end the second quarter with 752,974 shares of a Covid-19 vaccine maker.

Modern stocks have more than doubled in price during the first half of the year, and so far the third quarter has risen 63.0%. For comparison, the

S&P 500 Index

increased 14.4% in the first half and so far in the third quarter increased 3.4%.

Moderna’s second-quarter report was strong. The company is building a plant in Canada, the first outside the United States, that will manufacture mRNA-based vaccines to protect against Covid-19, seasonal flu, respiratory syncytial virus and other respiratory viruses. Federal health officials last week announced a plan to offer Covid-19 booster shots to people who received the Modern or

Pfizer

(PFE).

Calpers bought 640,467 more shares of Costco to end the second quarter with 1.8 million shares of the retailer. Costco shares rose 5% in the first half of 2021, and so far the third quarter has risen 16.0%.

Costco continues to record strong monthly sales growth in the same store. We appointed Craig Jelinek, CEO, to our latest list of CEOs to have a firm hand as the pandemic moved into the markets and to make continued gains. In fact, one observer sees that ongoing spending patterns favor Costco.

Carnival shares rose 21.7% in the first half and so far in the third quarter it has fallen 16.7%.

Cruise line operators, including Carnival, saw stocks rise earlier this year with expectations of a recovery in shipping. Later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wanted to enforce a conditional navigation order that forced the cruise industry to open under a strict framework, but in a victory for the industry, a judge blocked the ‘order. In July, Carnival issued $ 2.4 billion in debt to buy tickets it issued last year to stay afloat during the worst moment of the pandemic. The company said refinancing high-cost debt will save $ 135 million a year in interest expenses.

Calpers bought an additional 495,979 shares of Carnival to end the second quarter with 1.9 million shares.

The pension sold 4.7 million shares of Coca-Cola to reduce its investment to 20.5 million shares of the beverage giant. Coca-Cola shares fell 1.3% in the first half and, so far, the third quarter has gained 4.7%.

In June,

Morgan Stanley

he thought Coca-Cola sales would quickly recover from pandemic levels. We had designated the shares as one of our favorites for 2021, noting that it would benefit from a reopening, as half of its sales come from restaurants, stadiums and other venues. Coca-Cola suspended a number of beverage brands last year, including Odwalla fruit juices and smoothies, and invested in coffee.

Inside Scoop is a common feature of Barron that covers the stock transactions of corporate executives and board members — the so-called privileged — as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their privileged reporting status, these investors are required to disclose securities transactions with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.

Write to Ed Lin at [email protected] and follow @BarronsEdLin.