Thanks to public disclosure rules implemented by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the mythical investor is required to open his books for the world to see. George Soros is somewhat of a controversial character, garnering attention for his seemingly telepathic approach to trading and brash hedging antics. In 1992, he earned himself the title of ‘the man who broke the Bank of England’ when he shorted $10 billion USD worth of British Pounds and walked away with a neat $1 billion USD in a single day. Today, the maestro has approximately $8.3 billion USD to his name and sits at the helm of hedge fund Soros Fund Management.
Reviewing the fund’s disclosures posted for the fourth quarter of 2018, we can paint a picture of its positions in public companies for that window. Soros’ most notable exits come from the tech industry, which was hit particularly hard and saw major selloffs towards the end of last year, including Apple, Alibaba and Microsoft.
Entertainment-related positions were also given a haircut, as we see the firm scaling back its holdings of American gaming company Caesars Entertainment and casino property investment trust Vici Properties.
So what did Soros like? Our boy threw money at passive investments like a Vaucluse baby boomer, buying into exchange-traded fund iShares Russell 1000 and the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund. This is a change in direction for the firm, which has made its dollars in macro investing for its entire existence, and comes off the back of a tough 2018 with increased volatility and few trends.
Below is a summary of Soros Fund Management’s biggest holdings as of 31 December 2018 in descending order of market value held by the firm and based on the changes disclosed in the most recent 13F regulatory filing. We’ve included each stock’s performance to today as well, so we can see how Soros’ punts have panned out so far this year. The below figures are quoted in USD.
1. Liberty Broadband (Unchanged)
Ticker: LBRDK
Sector: Consumer service
Market Value: $525.16 million
Position as of Q4: 7.3 million shares
Q4 Position Change: Unchanged
2. Vici Properties (Sold)
Ticker: VICI
Sector: Financial
Market Value: $392.48 million
Position as of Q4: 20.9 million shares
Q4 Position Change: -600,000 shares
3. Caesars Entertainment (Sold)
Ticker: CZR
Sector: Consumer service
Market Value: $225.16 million
Position as of Q4: 33.2 million shares
Q4 Position Change: -1.3 million shares
4. Mondelez International (Bought)
Ticker: MDLZ
Sector: Consumer goods
Market Value: $52.19 million
Position as of Q4: 1.3 million shares
Q4 Position Change: +762,100 shares
5. Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (Bought)
Ticker: XLF
Sector: ETF
Market Value: $48.25 million
Position as of Q4: 2.0 million shares
Q4 Position Change: +2.0 million shares
6. iShares Russell 1000 ETF (Bought)
Ticker: IWB
Sector: ETF
Market Value: $39.60 million
Position as of Q4: 285,530 shares
Q4 Position Change: +285,530 shares
7. Philip Morris (Bought)
Ticker: PM
Sector: Consumer goods
Market Value: $US39.39 million
Position as of Q4: 590,000 shares
Q4 Position Change: +590,000 shares
8. Coupa Software (Bought)
Ticker: COUP
Sector: Technology
Market Value: $38.35 million
Position as of Q4: 610,000 shares
Q4 Position Change: +40,000 shares
9. GCI Liberty (Bought)
Ticker: GLIBA
Sector: Telecommunication
Market Value: $37.46 million
Position as of Q4: 910,000 shares
Q4 Position Change: +273,480 shares
All graphs courtesy of Google Finance. Stock positions courtesy of Bloomberg.
