Brown Advisory Q4 2025: Trimming Big Tech, Holding Payments

Brown Advisory does not trade like a hedge fund, which is exactly why its fourth-quarter 2025 filing is worth reading closely. The Baltimore-based quality-growth manager — roughly $71.68 billion across 500 reported positions — spent the quarter quietly taking risk off its largest technology holdings. In share-count terms, it cut Amazon by 18%, Nvidia by 16%, Intuit by 11%, Alphabet by 9%, and Microsoft by 6%, while leaving its payment-network and semiconductor-foundry positions essentially untouched. The reported 13F value fell 6.9% quarter over quarter, from $75.75 billion to $70.51 billion.

For a firm whose entire identity is long-horizon compounding, simultaneous trims across five of its top eight holdings is not noise. It is a deliberate de-risking of the megacap-AI complex — selling into strength on the names that had carried the portfolio — paired with conviction-level patience on a narrower set of "toll-road" businesses. The casual 13F reader sees a portfolio that still looks like every other large-cap growth book; the share deltas tell a different story about where Brown Advisory's confidence actually sits going into 2026.

The Q4 trim: selling the winners

The top of the book remains anchored by Microsoft at $5.20 billion, or 7.37% of the portfolio — but even that flagship position saw a 6% reduction in shares. The pattern sharpens as you move down the list: Amazon ($2.15 billion, 3.05%) was cut 18%, Nvidia ($2.10 billion, 2.97%) by 16%, and Intuit ($1.68 billion, 2.39%) by 11%. These are not exits; they are measured reductions in the most richly valued, most AI-levered names in the portfolio.

What stands out is the selectivity. Visa, at $2.59 billion (3.68%), and Mastercard, at $1.80 billion (2.56%), were both held roughly flat. Taiwan Semiconductor ($1.97 billion, 2.79%) — the one name that arguably has more direct AI-cycle exposure than anything Brown trimmed — was also left alone. The manager did not reduce technology exposure wholesale; it reduced exposure to the specific megacaps whose valuations had run hardest, while keeping the compounders it views as structurally protected.

What stayed: payments and the foundry

Read through the concentration profile and the philosophy comes into focus. The top ten holdings account for just over 32% of the portfolio, with a long diversified tail making up the remaining ~68% — a structure consistent with a quality-growth shop that concentrates conviction without becoming a five-stock fund.

The names left untouched share a characteristic: durable, toll-like economics that are less sensitive to the AI capex debate. Visa and Mastercard are payment-network duopolists that compound with nominal consumer spending; Taiwan Semiconductor sits at the literal foundation of the semiconductor supply chain, manufacturing the chips that Nvidia and others design. Holding those flat while trimming Amazon, Nvidia, and Intuit reads as a bet on business-model durability over momentum. Charles Schwab ($1.22 billion, 1.73%) rounds out the top ten alongside a Brown Advisory-managed fund position.

The AUM arc

The quarter's 6.9% decline in reported value did not come out of nowhere — it fits a portfolio that has oscillated within a band rather than trended. Brown's 13F AUM ran from $74.80 billion in early 2024 up to $79.64 billion by the third quarter, dropped sharply to $69.97 billion in the first quarter of 2025 (down 11.2%), recovered to $76.82 billion by the third quarter, and then settled back to $71.68 billion to close 2025.

The position count tells its own story: holdings expanded from 2,324 in early 2024 to a peak above 3,100 in mid-2025 before pulling back to 2,914 at year-end. A manager adding breadth on the way up and pruning it on the way down — while specifically lightening its most-appreciated megacaps — is behaving like one managing risk into a market that had become top-heavy, not one chasing it.

What it signals

The throughline of Brown Advisory's fourth-quarter positioning is discipline rather than direction. This is not a manager calling a top on technology — Microsoft is still its single largest holding, and the AI-adjacent foundry exposure is intact. It is a manager harvesting gains on the names where price had outrun its comfort, recycling risk toward businesses whose cash flows it trusts through a cycle. For investors who track institutional behavior, the actionable read is the divergence: when a long-term compounder trims the crowd's favorite AI names but won't touch the payment networks or the foundry, it is telling you which part of the trade it thinks is durable and which part it thinks is priced for perfection.

FAQ

What did Brown Advisory change in Q4 2025?
Brown Advisory trimmed its largest technology holdings in share-count terms — Amazon down 18%, Nvidia down 16%, Intuit down 11%, Alphabet down 9%, and Microsoft down 6% — while holding Visa, Mastercard, and Taiwan Semiconductor roughly flat. Reported 13F value fell 6.9% to $70.51 billion.

How big is Brown Advisory's 13F portfolio?
Brown Advisory reported about $71.68 billion in 13F assets across 500 positions for the fourth quarter of 2025, with the top ten holdings accounting for roughly 32% of the portfolio.

What is Brown Advisory's largest holding?
Microsoft, at $5.20 billion or 7.37% of the portfolio, despite a 6% reduction in shares during the quarter. Visa ($2.59 billion) and Alphabet ($2.38 billion) follow.

Is Brown Advisory bearish on technology?
Not wholesale. It trimmed its most richly valued megacap-AI names while keeping payment networks and Taiwan Semiconductor flat — a selective de-risking of momentum rather than a broad exit from technology.