Here's what value investor Bill Nygren is betting on now, including tech and large banks

Published Thu, May 21 20203:57 PM EDTUpdated Fri, May 22 20207:23 AM EDT

Jesse Pound @/in/jesse-pound @jesserpound

(This story is CNBC Pro subscribers only.) Widely followed value investor Bill Nygren made several stay-at-home trades in the first quarter, and overall he is betting big on tech and financials. Nygren manages the Oakmark Fund , which has more than $10 billion in assets under management. It held 53 stocks at the end of March, according to the firm's website, and the top 10 stocks accounted for more than 30% of net assets. It's biggest holdings were tech companies such as Alphabet and Netflix , though big banks like JPMorgan and Citi also carved out space in top 10. Alphabet and Netflix have had strong years despite the chaos in the broader market, rising 5% and 34%, respectively, year-to-date. Financials, on the other hand, have struggled mightily as the economy has slowed and interest rates have plunged. The KBW Bank Index , which includes many of Oakmark's largest holdings, has fallen more than 39% this year. The fund's smaller holdings show that Nygren was picking up some stay-at-home stocks. The fund added Pinterest , Match Group and Workday to its portfolio, totaling about 2.4% of its net assets at quarter end. A notable sell during the first quarter was American Airlines . The Oakmark Fund had a $230,000 stake in the airline as of Dec. 31, according to a securities filing, but that position had been zeroed out as of March 31. That stock, along with the other airlines, has been hammered in 2020 due to the coronavirus. American's share price dropped by more than 60% during the first quarter. Nygren said on " Halftime Report " last month that he was trying to focus on the underlying businesses during the sell-off and not get caught up in the large stock moves. "When we were looking at changes to make in March, a lot of stocks fell 50% but the ones that have the strong balance sheets, that have excess cash, whose businesses were not in the target of what's going to be hit by the Covid shutdown, we were much more comfortable with those names," Nygren said in April .

Commuters exit a Wall Street subway station near the New York Stock Exchange.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

(This story is CNBC Pro subscribers only.)

Widely followed value investor Bill Nygren made several stay-at-home trades in the first quarter, and overall he is betting big on tech and financials.

Nygren manages the Oakmark Fund, which has more than $10 billion in assets under management. It held 53 stocks at the end of March, according to the firm's website, and the top 10 stocks accounted for more than 30% of net assets.