Jeffrey Smith

Jeffrey Smith’s Starboard Value ended the first quarter with $4.57 billion in assets, and the activist fund’s latest 13F shows a portfolio built around a handful of high-conviction turnaround bets. The largest position is Qorvo, a radio-frequency chipmaker that accounts for 12.7% of the fund. That stake sits alongside Kenvue, the consumer health spinoff from Johnson & Johnson, at 10.3%. Both are classic Starboard targets: companies with operational inefficiencies and board-level pressure points. The fund’s second-largest holding is not a single stock but the iShares Ethereum Trust, at 8.6% of the portfolio. That is an unusual allocation for an activist manager and suggests Smith is willing to hold liquid assets as a store of value while waiting for opportunities. The rest of the top ten reads like a list of stressed or undervalued situations: Match Group, Algonquin Power & Utilities, Acacia Research, Bill Holdings, Lamb Weston, CarMax, and Riot Platforms. The positions are roughly equal in size, each between 4% and 8%, which points to a diversified activist book rather than a single concentrated campaign. Starboard’s recent moves diverge from peers in two ways. First, the crypto ETF position gives the fund a non-operating asset that most activist funds avoid. Second, the portfolio leans into mid-cap and small-cap names with real balance-sheet issues, such as Riot Platforms and Bill Holdings, rather than the mega-cap tech names that dominate other large activist filings. Smith is not chasing momentum. He is parking capital in liquid vehicles and spreading risk across a set of companies where he can push for change without depending on any one outcome.