--- title: "PineStone Q1 2026: $14.2B Canadian Book in 10 Quality Compounders" type: research slug: pinestone-asset-management-q1-2026-quality-compounder canonical_url: https://13finsight.com/research/pinestone-asset-management-q1-2026-quality-compounder published_at: 2026-05-15T04:39:32.112Z updated_at: 2026-05-15T04:39:37.789Z author: Marcus Chen author_title: Senior Market Analyst author_url: https://13finsight.com/authors/marcus-chen word_count: 982 locale: en source: 13F Insight --- # PineStone Q1 2026: $14.2B Canadian Book in 10 Quality Compounders > PineStone Asset Management runs a $14.23 billion concentrated US-equity book filed from Quebec. Top 10 holdings absorb 67.4% of AUM in quality compounders: TSM, GOOGL, MSFT, Moody's, Mastercard, AutoZone, CME, TJX, Sherwin-Williams, MSCI. Zero NVDA, zero AAPL. PineStone Asset Management Inc. is a Quebec-based active equity manager that filed a Q1 2026 Form 13F-HR reporting $14.23 billion in US-listed equity assets across 500 positions. The top 10 absorbs $9.59 billion or 67.4% of AUM in a tightly curated list of quality-compounder names: Taiwan Semiconductor at 12.56%, Alphabet at 10.46%, Microsoft at 7.46%, Moody's at 7.21%, Mastercard at 6.36%, AutoZone at 6.10%, CME Group at 5.39%, TJX Companies at 4.39%, Sherwin-Williams at 3.75%, MSCI at 3.70%. Nvidia is not in the top 10. Apple is not in the top 10. Amazon is not in the top 10. PineStone is running a deliberate quality-and-moat book that filters out the popular AI-platform leadership cohort.This is a distinctive Canadian-domiciled active equity 13F at scale. PineStone's parent (Fiera Capital) is one of the larger publicly listed Canadian asset managers, but the PineStone subsidiary runs a separately mandated concentrated growth-and-quality book. The Q1 2026 13F shows the philosophy intact: durable moats, pricing power, recurring revenue, capital-light economics. The combined effect is a 13F that looks unlike any US-domiciled mega-cap growth book — heavily concentrated, deliberately selective inside mega-cap tech, and weighted toward financial-and-information-services platforms.The book at a glance$14.23 billion total reported AUM. 500 long positions. WhaleScore 80.00 — placing PineStone in the elite smart-money tier. Top 10 concentration: 67.4%. Top 5 concentration: 44.1%. The book is meaningfully more concentrated than typical $14 billion active equity funds.The top 10 reads as a moat anthologyEach of PineStone's top 10 names shares a common structural property — durable competitive moat, multi-year free-cash-flow visibility, and capital-light operating leverage. Position-by-position:Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) at 12.56% — Foreign ADR, no S&P 500 index weight. Pure active call on the global foundry leadership at the leading-edge node. The largest pure-play semiconductor manufacturer outside of China's domestic ecosystem.Alphabet (GOOGL) at 10.46% — Roughly 2.3x the GOOGL S&P 500 index weight. PineStone's largest US-domiciled tech position is search-and-cloud platform durability, not Nvidia.Microsoft (MSFT) at 7.46% — Slightly above S&P weight of ~7.2%. Cloud and productivity-suite platform.Moody's (MCO) at 7.21% — Credit-rating duopolist with S&P Global. Pricing power on regulatory-mandated services. Index weight ~0.20%, so PineStone runs roughly 36x overweight.Mastercard (MA) at 6.36% — Payments-network duopolist with Visa. Index weight ~0.55%, so 11x overweight.AutoZone (AZO) at 6.10% — Aftermarket auto-parts retail. Buyback machine. Index weight ~0.20%, so 30x overweight.CME Group (CME) at 5.39% — Futures and options exchange. Index weight ~0.20%, so 27x overweight.TJX Companies (TJX) at 4.39% — Off-price retail (Marshalls, T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods). Index weight ~0.36%, so 12x overweight.Sherwin-Williams (SHW) at 3.75% — Architectural paint. Index weight ~0.22%, so 17x overweight.MSCI Inc. (MSCI) at 3.70% — Index-licensing and ESG-data services. Index weight ~0.12%, so 30x overweight.Pattern recognition: most names in the top 10 are tax-and-toll-style businesses (credit ratings, payments rails, index licensing, derivative-exchange clearing, paint pricing power, auto-parts retail). The combined weight of 'financial-and-information-services platforms' (MCO + MA + CME + MSCI) is 22.66% — more than any single Magnificent 7 name.What's absentThe exclusions are as informative as the inclusions:Nvidia (NVDA) — absent from top 10. S&P 500 index weight ~6.5%. PineStone has near-zero top-tier exposure to the dominant AI-platform name.Apple (AAPL) — absent from top 10. S&P weight ~6.1%. The largest stock by index weight is structurally underweighted at PineStone.Amazon (AMZN) — absent from top 10. S&P weight ~3.9%. PineStone holds AMZN in the tail at much smaller weights.Tesla (TSLA) — absent. Consistent with the value-quality factor exclusion most active managers apply.Meta (META) — absent from top 10. PineStone has held META historically; current top 10 absence reflects either trim or relative position-size compression.The deliberate non-participation in the AI-platform leadership rally is the most distinctive feature of the PineStone book versus US peer active growth managers.The top 10 vs the restTop 10 at 67.4% versus 32.6% across the remaining 490 positions. The tail averages roughly $9 million per position. The book is structurally a 10-position concentrated bet with a long diversification tail rather than a 500-name broad allocation.The Canadian-domiciled mandate contextPineStone files only a US 13F because its US-equity holdings exceed the $100 million threshold. Total PineStone AUM (across global equity, fixed-income, and other mandates at Fiera) is meaningfully larger than the $14.23 billion 13F. The 13F captures the US-equity slice of a broader institutional book mandated to deliver quality-and-compounder exposure for Canadian institutional clients (pension funds, endowments, family offices).The Quebec-based domicile is uncommon at this scale; PineStone is one of the larger Canadian active equity managers in the US 13F universe.AUM trajectoryPineStone's reported US 13F AUM has scaled steadily through 2024-2026. The 500-position floor has been stable; AUM growth has been driven by position appreciation plus moderate institutional inflows.What this 13F tells institutional readersThe structural moat thesis is the central conviction. Top 10 absent NVDA, AAPL, AMZN — PineStone has explicitly chosen to underweight the AI-platform leadership cohort in favor of tax-and-toll information-services platforms.The 22.66% combined financial-services-platform weight is unusual. Combining MCO + MA + CME + MSCI into a top-tier conviction block is a rare and explicit bet on financial-and-information services as durable compounders.The Canadian-mandate context matters. Quality-and-compounder exposure is a more common Canadian institutional preference than US-equivalents, which often demand AI-platform participation.What to trackPineStone's Q2 2026 13F (due August 14, 2026). Watch whether Moody's at 7.21% holds or compresses — that is the most distinctive single position. Track via the institutional signals feed.Whether NVDA enters the top 10. A change would be a major philosophical shift.TSM position evolution. 12.56% portfolio in a foreign ADR with geopolitical risk is the single largest concentration; geopolitical events could force size adjustment.PineStone Asset Management's Q1 2026 13F is one of the cleanest expressions of concentrated quality-and-compounder investing at scale in the US 13F universe. For a primer on filtering durable-moat thesis from popular-momentum allocation in active 13Fs, see our explainer hub.Source: SEC Form 13F-HR filed by PineStone Asset Management Inc. (CIK 0001904893) for the period ending 2026-03-31; available via EDGAR — PineStone filer index. ## FAQ ### What is PineStone Asset Management? PineStone Asset Management Inc. is a Quebec-based active equity manager that runs concentrated US-equity strategies. Its Q1 2026 Form 13F-HR reports $14.23 billion in assets under management across 500 long positions for the period ending 2026-03-31. WhaleScore 80.00 places PineStone in the elite smart-money tier we track. ### Why does PineStone not hold Nvidia, Apple, or Amazon? PineStone runs a deliberate quality-and-moat investment philosophy that filters out names trading at multiples too high for the firm's value-and-quality screens. NVDA, AAPL, and AMZN are absent from the top 10 despite being the largest S&P 500 weights. The active call reflects a structural underweight on the AI-platform leadership rally in favor of tax-and-toll-style information-services platforms (Moody's, Mastercard, CME, MSCI). ### What are PineStone's top holdings in Q1 2026? PineStone's top 10 positions are Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM at 12.56% portfolio), Alphabet (GOOGL at 10.46%), Microsoft (MSFT at 7.46%), Moody's (MCO at 7.21%), Mastercard (MA at 6.36%), AutoZone (AZO at 6.10%), CME Group (CME at 5.39%), TJX Companies (TJX at 4.39%), Sherwin-Williams (SHW at 3.75%), and MSCI Inc. (MSCI at 3.70%). The top 10 sum to $9.59 billion or 67.4% of AUM. ### How concentrated is PineStone's portfolio versus US peers? PineStone's 67.4% top-10 concentration is significantly higher than typical US-active managers at comparable AUM. Clearbridge Investments runs 25.4% top-10 at $114 billion AUM; MFS Investment Management runs 20.6% at $297 billion. PineStone's concentration reflects the Canadian institutional-mandate preference for fewer high-conviction positions in durable-moat compounders rather than broad index-aware diversification. --- Source: 13F Insight — https://13finsight.com/research/pinestone-asset-management-q1-2026-quality-compounder Author: Marcus Chen — https://13finsight.com/authors/marcus-chen Last updated: 2026-05-15T04:39:37.789Z