Hedge-fund manager David Tepper bought $2.4 billion of oil and gas stocks in the second quarter, shifting 79 percent of his U.S. equity holdings into energy from less than 1 percent three months earlier.

Tepper, who runs Appaloosa Management, acquired new stakes in 18 energy companies including Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips and Devon Energy Corp., according to an Aug. 14 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He also added more shares of the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund.

The value of the holdings fell 14 percent from the end of the quarter to yesterday as commodity prices plunged from a July 3 record. Stanley Druckenmiller's Duquesne Capital Management LLC in Pittsburgh, Daniel Loeb's Third Point LLC and Jeffrey Altman's Owl Creek Asset Management LP also bought more energy stocks in the quarter, according to SEC filings.

New York-based Third Point, which raised its energy holdings to 26 percent from 9 percent of stocks during the second quarter, said in a July 25 letter to investors that a violent reversal in energy stocks at the beginning of the third quarter contributed to losses in the high single digits.