Billionaire George Soros Is Buying These 10 Stocks

In this article, we discuss the 10 stocks that billionaire George Soros is buying. If you want to skip our detailed analysis of these stocks, go directly to Billionaire George Soros Is Buying These 5 Stocks.

George Soros, the Hungarian-born American billionaire who runs Soros Fund Management, one of the most successful hedge funds in the world, has been in the news recently after his spokesperson told news agency Reuters that the investor was supportive of a new plan to tax the unrealized market gains of billionaires based in the United States. The US is home to around 700 billionaires, the most in any part of the world, and House Democrats have pushed the proposal to help fund a massive infrastructure plan.  

However, since the proposal was not very well-received, it was shelved from an already contentious social spending framework released by the White House in late October that is yet to be approved. When Soros is not stirring up controversy in political power circles, he is blowing away the finance world with his moves at the market. Latest 13F filings show that the portfolio value of his fund was $5.4 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2021, down from $5.9 billion at the end of the second quarter. 

The billionaire, through his hedge fund, made new purchases in 76 stocks, additional purchases in 32, sold out of 83, and reduced holdings in 26 equities. The top ten holdings comprise over 50% of the total portfolio. Some of the top stocks include Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI), and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), among others discussed in detail below. Soros has a personal net worth of more than $8.5 billion, placing him among the 100 richest Americans. 

Our Methodology

These were picked from the investment portfolio of Soros Fund Management at the end of the third quarter of 2021. Companies in which the fund increased stake by 50%, when compared to filings for the second quarter, were preferred. 

The hedge fund sentiment around each stock was calculated using the data of 873 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey. 

Billionaire George Soros Is Buying These 10 Stocks

Billionaire George Soros Is Buying These Stocks

10. Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 58

Percentage Increase in Stake During Q3: 43%

Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB) owns and operates an online travel and lodging platform. The stock has rallied in recent weeks after the firm reported a 70% year-on-year increase in quarterly revenue between June and September as pent-up travel and vacation demand resulted in a massive increase in bookings, a trend expected to last into the holiday season.

Latest data shows that Soros Fund Management owned 77,500 shares of Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB) at the end of the third quarter of 2021 worth $13 million, representing 0.24% of the portfolio. 

Among the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Chicago-based investment firm Citadel Investment Group is a leading shareholder in Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABNB) with 3.4 million shares worth more than $526 million.

In its Q2 2021 investor letter, Worm Capital LLC, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Throughout the quarter, you may have noticed that we averaged into a significant position in Airbnb (ABNB). Though the stock has been a relative underperformer since its February highs, we are highly confident about the company’s prospects and its ability to generate meaningful compounded returns over time.

Some history: We have been following Airbnb’s journey for several years, long before the company went public earlier this year. (In fact, nine years ago, in November 2012, Eric profiled the company for Inc.: “Airbnb Is Changing Travel.”)

Whenever we underwrite a new investment, we look for a few key attributes that help us determine the potential long-term value of a business, as well as its risks. In particular, we focus on management (Are they founders? Do they have skin the game? Are they playing the long game?), addressable market size (How big is the opportunity?), its relative growth and creativity to expand (Are they constantly innovating to make the product better for their customers?), margin expansion (Where can we find operating leverage in the model?), its status in the industry (Are they the dominant player? Can they

take market share from incumbents?), business risks (What are we missing? Are customers dissatisfied? What do employees say?) and probably a dozen more elements that are critical to our process. It’s only then do we take out the pencils do the valuation work.

In short, ABNB fulfills pretty much every element of a business model we’re attracted to: First, it’s highly scalable marketplace-based business model that unites buyer and seller with observable flywheel effects. (This is an important observation, in that the platform creates significant economic value for millions of hosts who rely on Airbnb, which in turn attracts new hosts who identify the opportunity, which creates more inventory, which turn attracts more travelers, which attracts more hosts, and soon.) Second, it has a global focus with significant opportunities to expand its operating leverage; Third,

its management—which is still founder-led—stands out to us as long-term thinkers capable of handling crisis, which the team demonstrated throughout the pandemic by dropping operating costs and turning the business into a more efficient, lean organization. (Like Churchill said: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”).”

9. Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 52 

Percentage Increase in Stake During Q3: 51%

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) is an Ireland-based professional services company. According to regulatory filings, Soros Fund Management owned 75,500 shares in the company at the end of September 2021 worth $24 million, representing 0.44% of the portfolio. 

Barclays analyst Ramsey El-Assal recently kept an Overweight rating on Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) stock and raised the price target to $384 from $335, appreciating the strong earnings of the firm in the fourth fiscal quarter. 

Among the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, London-based investment firm Ako Capital is a leading shareholder in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) with 2.2 million shares worth more than $718 million. 

8. Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 108 

Percentage Increase in Stake During Q3: 57%

Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) provides enterprise cloud computing solutions. The company recently announced that it had signed a global strategic partnership with DocuSign, an electronic contract manager. As part of the deal, the two firms are set to develop artificial intelligence-based solutions to automate the contract process further. 

The hedge fund of billionaire George Soros owned 111,000 shares of Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) at the end of the third quarter of 2021 worth more than $30 million, representing 0.55% of the total portfolio. 

Among the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Washington-based investment firm Soros Fund Management is a leading shareholder in Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) with 13.4 million shares worth more than $3.2 billion.

In its Q1 2021 investor letter, ClearBridge Investments, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) was one of them. Here is what the fund said: 

“We added to our software-as-a-service (SaaS) exposure with the initiation of SaaS leader salesforce.com, which develops software for customer relationship management (we added Workday, which enterprise resource planning applications, last quarter). Saleforce.com is well-positioned in the most attractive end markets in software and will benefit from secular drivers such as remote work and the digital transformation. Salesforce.com is a sustainability leader as well, with a commitment to carbon-neutral cloud, toward which it has set a goal of 100% renewable energy for global operations by fiscal year 2022. The company has a strong focus on equality, in terms of equal rights, pay, education and opportunity. As a data company it has been leading on workforce disclosures and seeks to have 50% of its U.S. workforce made up of underrepresented groups by 2024.”

7. Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 36  

Percentage Increase in Stake During Q3: 58% 

Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP) operates in the construction materials industry. Soros Fund Management owned 130,000 shares in the company at the end of September 2021 worth $17 million, representing 0.31% of the portfolio of the fund. 

On October 26, investment advisory Citi maintained a Buy rating on Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP) stock and raised the price target to $170 from $167, noting the successful passage of the infrastructure bill was a strong growth catalyst for the firm in the months ahead. 

Among the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, New York-based investment firm Anomaly Capital Management is a leading shareholder in Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP) with 227,550 shares worth more than $29 million. 

6. Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 70  

Percentage Increase in Stake During Q3: 74%  

Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) owns and runs a cloud-based data platform. The firm has recently unveiled new product features for businesses aimed at improving data sharing and interaction with customers. These features have been received well by analysts that have raised price targets on the stock following their release. 

Latest securities filings reveal that Soros Fund Management owned 26,000 shares in Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) at the end of the third quarter of 2021 worth $7.8 million.

At the end of the second quarter of 2021, 70 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $12.5 billion in Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW), down from 71 in the preceding quarter worth $12.9 billion.

Here is what RiverPark Funds has to say about Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) in its Q1 2021 investor letter:

“We also established a position in Snowflake during the quarter. Snowflake offers cloud-based data storage and analytics, generally termed “data warehouse-as-a-service.” The data warehousing market—created by the massive, growing amount of user, customer, and account data and the need to search and analyze it—has historically stored its data on physical servers located on-premises. The cloud data platform market—storing data off-premises on cloud servers—is a relatively new $70 billion+ market. Significantly, incremental warehouse data capacity and renewals are expected to be driven by and to the cloud, with more than 75% of databases in the cloud by 2022.

Snowflake requires absolutely no infrastructure management from its users, is fully scalable for each customer, runs on Amazon, Microsoft, or Google cloud platforms, and most critically, Snowflake helps companies analyze their data. The company also has a unique, customer-aligned billing model based on usage. All of which has led to Snowflake being among the leaders of this highly fragmented market, posting 124% revenue growth last year. SNOW’s growth comes from the combination of more customers—which grew 73% last year—and customers buying more services—the company boasts an amazing 150%+ net customer retention. The company’s growing scale has also led to increasing gross margin and operating leverage, up 1,100 basis points and 8,200 basis points, respectively, over the past two years. The company has guided to FCF break-even this year, and with the company’s capital expenditure-light model—Snowflake uses the public cloud for hosting—we expect FCF to grow much faster than revenue growth, which we forecast to grow comfortably more than 50% per year for the next several years. Additionally, we have great confidence in the SNOW management team, which previously had an enormously successful run guiding one of our other core Cloud software holdings ServiceNow.”

Click to continue reading and see Billionaire George Soros Is Buying These 5 Stocks.

Suggested Articles:

Disclosure. None. Billionaire George Soros Is Buying These 10 Stocks is originally published on Insider Monkey.