George Soros is an 80-year-old Hungarian-American hedge fund manager who became known as "the Man Who Broke the Bank of England" after he made $1 billion in 1992. Soros graduated from the London School of Economics in 1952. After graduation, he started his career in the London merchant bank of Singer & Friedlander. In 1956 he moved to New York City and his career took off. He earned large profits from investments and currency speculation. According to Forbes, he is ranked 35th on the list of the world’s richest people, with an estimated net worth of $14.2 billion.
Soros returned an average of 30.5% per year between 1969 and 2000. In 2007, Soros came back from retirement after the quant liquidity crunch and managed to generate a 32% return for the year. Soros even managed to return 8% in 2008, the worst year for most hedge funds. Soros also returned 29% in 2009, earning $3.3 billion in fees and investment gains.
According to 13F filings, Soros Fund Management had 744 securities with a total value of $7.7 billion in its 13F portfolio as of March 31, 2011. During the first quarter, Soros placed new bets on Adecoagro (AGRO), NII Holdings (NIHD), Visteon (VC), and Ciena (CIEN). We pay special attention to Soros’ new stock picks as well as his long-term holdings. Soros had 34 large positions in his portfolio that he also had large positions a year ago. These are the stocks in which Soros has conviction.
CompanyName | Ticker | Value 03/2011 | Value 03/2010 | Return |
INTEROIL CORP | 302092 | 192025 | -17% | |
LAWSON SOFTWARE CL 1 | 249510 | 194672 | 69% | |
MONSANTO CO NEW | 192139 | 228822 | -5% | |
EPICOR SOFTWARE | 165272 | 103275 | 31% | |
J D S UNIPHASE CORP | 152824 | 19325 | 24% | |
CADENCE DESIGN (CL 1) | 126992 | 133536 | 52% | |
BLACKBOARD INC | 124402 | 84383 | 2% | |
WESTPORT INNOVA | 121936 | 30192 | 22% | |
EMDEON INC | 115219 | 127775 | -17% | |
DIODES INC | 105101 | 115448 | 6% | |
CADENCE DESIGN (CL 2) | 99743 | 103644 | 52% | |
APPLE INC | 80308 | 42776 | 38% | |
WEATHERFORD INTL | 79071 | 99958 | 8% | |
COMCAST CORP NEW | 78951 | 61685 | 28% | |
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP | 76906 | 15266 | -12% | |
LAWSON SOFTWARE (CL 2) | 75755 | 33554 | 69% | |
CERADYNE INC CA | CRDN | 74965 | 62795 | 59% |
GOOGLE INC | 68186 | 11356 | -12% | |
VERIZON COMM | 64954 | 175073 | 22% | |
R F MICRO DEVICES CL 1 | 51443 | 107856 | 8% | |
A T & T INC | 48917 | 119894 | 27% | |
NOVAGOLD RESOURCES | 45397 | 133519 | 22% | |
PETROLEO BRASILEIRO | 44885 | 405003 | -26% | |
DIRECTV | 43208 | 177447 | 38% | |
EXAR CORP | 39748 | 23761 | -16% | |
R F MICRO DEVICES CL 2 | 35474 | 184193 | 8% | |
MERCURY COMPUTER SYS | 35267 | 18220 | 27% | |
EXTREME NETWORKS INC | 30963 | 24957 | -1% | |
JPMORGAN CHASE & CO | 28794 | 114891 | -9% | |
R F MICRO DEVICES CL 3 | 27990 | 17629 | 8% | |
THERMO FISHER SCIENT | 25275 | 17256 | 18% | |
QUALCOMM INC | 21748 | 30938 | 29% | |
KINROSS GOLD CORP | 21726 | 66029 | -12% | |
COVANTA HOLDING | 17909 | 53975 | -2% |
Soros’ largest long-term pick is Interoil (IOC), which he now has around $300 Million in. Robert Pitts’ Steadfast Capital and Izzy Englander’s Millennium are bullish about IOC as well. IOC lost 17% percent since March 2010 which could be the reason why Soros increased his position.
Soros’ second largest long-term bet is Lawson Software (LWSN) which has been a very profitable bet. Soros had two classes of LWSN in his portfolio, totaling more than $300 Million. The stock returned 69% since March 2010, beating S&P 500 (SPY) index by a large margin. Carl Icahn also had a large position in Lawson. (See the complete list of hedge funds with LWSN holdings).
Soros’ largest long term holdings gained 26% since March 2010. Considering SPY’s 11% return during the same time period, Soros’ long term picks are extremely successful. This underlines Soros’ talent in picking long term winners. (You can check out Soros’ current top holdings here)
Disclosure: I am long T.
