Ed Lin

One of America's biggest public pensions increased positions in some of its more volatile stock investments, selling shares of a ride-hailing firm.

Ohio Public Employees Retirement System bought more shares of Palantir Technologies and MicroStrategy, and sold Lyft shares in the second quarter. Opers, as the pension is known, disclosed the trades, among others, in a form it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Opers didn't respond to a request for comment. At the end of 2024, the pension had total assets of $155.6 billion, making it the 14th largest public fund in the U.S.

Palantir stock soared 80% in the first half of the year, while the S&P 500 rose 5.5%. So far in the third quarter, shares of the data-analytics company are up 13%, while the index is up 1.5%.

Shares have been rising since Palantir was added to the S&P 500 in September. New components in the index benefit from having their shares bought up by funds that track the market benchmark. The company has also turned in strong earnings reports this year.

Palantir stock set a record high of $155.68 on Thursday.

Opers bought 171,441 more Palantir shares in the second quarter to lift its investment to 908,712 shares.

The pension bought 21,499 additional shares of MicroStrategy, which does business as Strategy, to end the second quarter with 101,880 shares.

MicroStrategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, has been selling preferred shares to fund further purchases of the cryptocurrency. MicroStrategy has issued over $3 billion of preferred stock with rates as high as 11.5%.

Barron's has noted that investors debate whether that high yield is enough compensation to offset the risks resulting from the fact that there isn't a readily identifiable source of cash to pay the dividends. The company's view is that investors can feel secure because its holdings of Bitcoin are worth far more than what it owes.

MicroStrategy stock rose 40% in the first half of 2025. So far in the third quarter, shares are up 4.7%.

Lyft stock gained 22% in the first two quarters of 2025. So far in the third, the ride-hailing stock is down 6.3%.

The company's fourth-quarter report in February was mixed, but investors were upbeat after the first-quarter report in May included a large increase in the company's share-repurchase plan. TD Cowen upgraded Lyft stock in June to Buy from Hold, noting that more competition in the autonomous-vehicle market could benefit the shares.

Opers sold 58,881 Lyft shares to end the second quarter with 166,628 shares.

Inside Scoop is a regular Barron's feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members -- so-called insiders -- as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.

Write to Ed Lin at ed.lin@barrons.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 25, 2025 21:30 ET (01:30 GMT)

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