The LDS Church large fund is not that large. See how much money it has lost.

The latest SEC reports from Ensign Peak Advisors show that Faith’s investment account is down nearly $1.6 billion or 3.2% to $48 billion, but it’s still well ahead of the pandemic’s nadir.

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lost $1.59 billion in investment in the third quarter as US markets fell.

Newly filed federal reports put the tenth-seeded bill – managed by the faith’s investment arm, Salt Lake City’s Ensign Peak Advisors – at $48 billion, down 3.2% from the previous quarter as the fund closed the two-year high came from just under $50 billion.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.9% in the same three months, marked by reactions to ongoing COVID-19 effects, supply disruptions and inflation.

The latest drop breaks a 15-month growth spurt on Ensign Peak’s massive portfolio of stocks and bonds managed for the Church in Utah. But the numbers still show the bill is 60% ahead of the early lows of the coronavirus pandemic, when the reserve fund plunged below $30 billion.

It’s only the third time since the once-secret fund began reporting to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in early 2020 that its holdings have not outperformed the Dow.

In December 2019, David Nielsen, a former fund manager at Ensign Peak, filed a whistleblower complaint with the IRS accusing the church of amassing up to $100 billion in reserve funds from excess tithes intended for — but never spent on — charities. , in possible violation of tax laws.

To date, the tax authorities have not confirmed that it will act on the complaint.

Publicly and in court documents, church leaders have portrayed Ensign Peak as a “rainy day” account to help the global faith of 16.6 million members navigate economic downturn and fund its operations around the world.

Fund managers filed their first SEC report in February 2020, announcing that the account held $37.8 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2019.

Ensign Peak now owns shares in 1,851 companies and funds, the latest SEC reports show, a number that has mushroomed from 1,622 holdings in early 2020 as the fund added billions in value.

Major tech companies Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft make up $9 billion of Ensign Peak’s total portfolio, up from $5.2 billion at the start of 2020, with Microsoft in its current top spot, at $2.3 billion .

The five tech giants also represent Ensign’s only holdings of more than a billion dollars, with banker JPMorgan Chase now second highest, at $710 million, followed by computer maker NVIDIA Corp, at $629 million. Other top positions include Visa ($580 million); UnitedHealth Group ($542 million); Intel ($527 million) and Thermo Fisher Scientific ($469 million).

While those five Big Tech holdings have nearly doubled in dollar value since 2019, reports show, Ensign Peak has steadily adjusted its stocks to keep them at 17% to 19% of the portfolio’s total value.

It is unclear to what extent church leaders are directly involved in Ensign Peak’s actions, although fund officials have said they avoid debt in accordance with the tenets of the faith and strive to avoid investments that Latter-day Saints view as objectionable. such as tobacco or gambling stocks.

The church-owned fund made headlines in early 2021 after it posted big gains from so-called meme stocks like GameStop, Blackberry and Bed, Bath & Beyond. Its shares in game retailer GameStop alone have risen in value from $867,000 to $8.7 million in just a few months, for a 907% gain.

There are no signs of those social media-influenced stocks in Ensign Peak’s latest SEC report, but the fund increased its holdings in Tesla in the third quarter, raising its stake in the electric vehicle and clean energy company to $462. 7 million came.

And after dumping shares in a fund focused on South Korean companies in early 2021, Ensign Peak has ramped up its shares in similar funds focused on India and Saudi Arabia. Indian holdings skyrocketed from $12 million at the end of 2020 to $65 million in the latest report, while Saudi shares rose from $3 million to $19 million.