HighTower Advisors 13F Portfolio

The biggest statement this quarter is that HighTower wants more large-cap growth exposure, but via diversified sleeves rather than bigger FAANG tickets. VUG, IWF and VGT dominate the buy list, making clear they prefer factor purity to single-name headline risk.

• VUG: The Vanguard Growth ETF explodes to $829.3M after a +505.8% share increase and a roughly $692.4M add. That is a hard pivot toward broad U.S. large-cap growth leadership instead of trying to outguess the index at the margin.

• IWF: The iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF is up +290.0% in shares with a $459.5M dollar add, despite sitting 17.4% below their average buy. They are averaging down into growth beta rather than chasing winners only.

• VGT: The Vanguard Information Technology ETF jumps via a massive +762.8% share increase and about $385.8M of incremental capital. This is how you say “we still want tech upside” while trimming single-name semis and megacaps.

• IBM: A 27.8% share lift and a $104.9M add to IBM shows selective love for legacy tech with AI and infrastructure angles, at a more modest 33.0% gain vs cost.

• ABBV: An 18.7% share increase and $77.8M of added capital into AbbVie suggests they want durable cash-flow health care alongside their growth tilt, not just cyclical beta.

Rounded out by incremental adds to IVV, VOO, AMZN, and a range of broad ETFs (VTV, IEFA, SPYM, DGRO), the pattern is clear: more scalable, benchmark-aligned growth and tech, less dependence on a handful of poster-child winners.

On the sell side, HighTower is not abandoning themes; they’re upgrading implementation. The trims are classic profit-taking in high-gain names and a rebalancing away from narrower, idiosyncratic risk toward diversified vehicles.

• JNJ: Johnson & Johnson is cut by -5.6% in shares, freeing about $150.2M even though it’s only up 36.4% vs cost. That looks more like a funding source from a low-vol compounder than a thesis break.

• CSCO: Cisco takes one of the harshest reductions at -22.9% of shares and roughly -$141.2M. With a 164.5% gain vs their cost, this is a straightforward harvest in an ex-growth networking name as they buy broader tech exposure through VGT and growth ETFs.

• AAPL, NVDA, MU: Apple, Nvidia and Micron are all modestly trimmed (from -2.6% to -12.2% share cuts), collectively freeing hundreds of millions. Each is sitting on very large gains (Apple above 210.5%, Nvidia above 505.4%, Micron over 1,042.4%), so selling here is less about a call on AI or semis and more about not letting single names dominate the portfolio’s risk.

• SPY, IJH, IJr, CVX: Reductions in SPY, mid/small-cap ETFs (IJH, IJR) and Chevron signal capital being pulled from generic beta, smaller caps and energy to support concentrated growth/tech ETF builds. They’re not exiting these exposures, but they are clearly deemphasizing them.

At the sector level, the headline is subtle: Technology edges down from 27.3% to 25.97%, and yet the portfolio is more growth-heavy. The trick is that much of the fresh exposure sits in the “Unclassified” bucket of ETFs, where VUG, IWF and VGT live, pushing that bucket from 44.1% to 46.6% of the top-50.

Direct tech holdings are being slimmed at the margin, but tech as a theme is reinforced via ETFs. AAPL, MSFT, NVDA, GOOGL/GOOG, META and MU all see small trims, while VGT and growth benchmarks take in large inflows. This is tech risk by design, not by accident.

Health care ticks down slightly to 9.23% from 9.66% even as they add to ABBV and MRK and lightly trim JNJ and LLY. Within cyclicals, Consumer Discretionary is essentially flat at 8.4%, but the composition nudges toward quality and scale: adds to AMZN, PG, COST and MCD offset a trim to SharkNinja.

Elsewhere, Industrials slide from 3.4% to 3.27% as they shave Caterpillar and Tesla while increasing PLPC, a niche power-infrastructure play. Energy drops from 1.27% to 1.11% on a Chevron trim, and Telecommunications (really networking hardware via Cisco) falls from 1.46% to 1.1%, another sign they’re rotating from single-name legacy tech toward ETF-based exposure.

Put together, this quarter says HighTower wants a benchmark-plus growth profile with less single-name blowup risk. They’re monetizing spectacular wins in semis and megacap tech, but instead of de-risking into cash, they’re plowing that capital into large-cap growth and tech ETFs and a deeper bench of defensive franchises.

The surge in VUG, IWF and VGT, alongside steady builds in IVV, VOO, QQQ, VTI and SPYM, implies they expect the growth trade to keep working, but see marginal edge in structure, not stock selection. This is the behavior of a large, institutional allocator more interested in factor exposure, implementation cost and tracking error than in calling the next Nvidia.

Adds to ABBV, MRK, PEP, PG and MCD reinforce a desire for cash-generative, dividend-supportive names that can smooth volatility if the growth trade stumbles. Meanwhile, trims in energy, small/mid caps, and select cyclicals suggest they’re less enthused about broad reflation or commodity-led rallies.

If the next leg of the market is led by U.S. large-cap growth and tech, HighTower will fully participate through diversified vehicles. If leadership rotates, they’ve kept enough sector balance and blue-chip ballast to avoid being hostage to a handful of crowded winners.