Inside Fisher Asset Management’s 2026-Q1 Pivot: AI Core, Pharma Upside, Rate Hedge

The biggest dollar adds are unambiguous: Fisher is building a second pillar alongside AI in large‑cap, cash‑rich pharmaceuticals. AstraZeneca debuts at 0.73% of the book, while AbbVie, Pfizer and Novartis all see step‑function increases, pushing health care higher even as tech remains the single largest sector.

On the health care side, the pattern is clear: they’re buying scale, pipelines and pricing power rather than speculative biotech.

• AstraZeneca is a fresh, sizeable entry, immediately funded to a core‑satellite weight.
• AbbVie’s position was ramped by +1347.0%, turning a small stub into a real bet despite being modestly underwater on average cost.
• Pfizer was doubled (shares up +102.0%) even though it still sits slightly below the fund’s average buy level, a classic “value plus balance sheet” posture.
• Novartis saw an +86.0% share increase, extending the same playbook in Europe.

Alongside that, they quietly fortified the bond sleeve.

• IEF, the 7–10 year Treasury ETF, was lifted by +9.1%, with the position still at a small loss versus average cost.
• VCIT, intermediate corporates, was raised +6.2%.

These are not yield chasers; they are convexity buys. If growth or inflation expectations roll, this bond ballast pays off just as the AI complex and global cyclicals would be wobbling.

Sells this quarter are minimal and surgical, not a funding exodus. The two notable trims – SAP and Netflix – are more about cleaning up the edges than signaling a thesis reversal.

• SAP was cut by a modest -1.3% in share count. The position is actually below the fund’s average cost, so the trim looks less like profit‑taking and more like freeing a sliver of capital from an underperforming, slower‑growth software name to feed higher‑conviction ideas in health care and bonds.
• Netflix was reduced by -0.8% in shares. With the position still up strongly versus average buy, this reads as routine risk management on a long‑held winner rather than a strong bearish view on streaming economics.

Crucially, Fisher didn’t raid its AI, mega‑bank, or energy positions to fund the pharma and fixed‑income build‑out. Almost everything in the top‑50 outside of SAP and Netflix saw small adds, even if only 1–3%. That reinforces the message: this quarter’s rotation is additive, not a zero‑sum “sell growth, buy value” trade.

On a sector level, the book is evolving from a pure growth engine into a barbell of AI plus durable cash flows. Technology still dominates at 33.64% but is down from 34.82%, as health care steps up to 10.37% from 7.6%. That 2.8 percentage‑point jump is the single most important shift in the portfolio.

The other quiet move is the reinforcement of the “unclassified” bond sleeve (IEF and VCIT), which nudged up to 9.76% from 9.59%. When you overlay that with steady incremental buying in mega‑banks (JPM, BAC, C), brokers (GS, MS, SCHW) and payment rails (Visa, Mastercard), you get a picture of a manager positioning for higher‑for‑longer rates but also wanting insurance if the Fed overshoots.

Meanwhile, exposure to traditional cyclicals remains robust. Energy dipped only slightly from 10.25% to 9.86% despite broad‑based adds to Exxon, Chevron, BP, Shell, Canadian Natural Resources, ConocoPhillips and BHP. Industrials and basic materials (Caterpillar, RTX, Johnson Controls, Cummins, Freeport‑McMoRan, Rio Tinto) hold roughly flat. Fisher still wants real assets, commodities and global capex in the mix, but the incremental dollar today is more likely to land in a drug major or a duration ETF than in another barrel of oil.

Stack the moves together and the forward picture is straightforward: Fisher wants to keep compounding with AI, platforms and global cyclicals, but is increasingly unwilling to run that exposure naked into an uncertain rate and political regime. The health‑care build‑out and bond adds are a statement that defensive growth and duration are now strategic, not tactical, holdings.

Expect Fisher to keep leaning into the AI infrastructure stack – NVIDIA, TSMC, ASML, Broadcom – and the U.S. consumer and payments rails that monetize that computing power. At the same time, the pharma complex (Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, AbbVie, Pfizer, Novartis, Merck, J&J, GSK, Intuitive Surgical) now forms a genuine second anchor, capable of carrying returns if tech multiples compress.

Combined with persistent positions in big energy, miners and industrial machinery, this is a portfolio built for multiple outcomes: continued AI‑driven growth, a late‑cycle slowdown cushioned by drugs and bonds, or an inflationary spur where real assets matter. The key tell this quarter is that conviction isn’t rotating away from growth; it’s being surrounded by shock absorbers so Fisher can keep riding it longer.