Clinton-Backer George Soros Gets Out of Gold ETF Just in Time, Whiffs on Barrick Gold (ABX)

Billionaire George Soros has fought several battles in his life and won most of them. However, the election of Donald Trump as POTUS will probably go down as one of his worst losses, both politically and personally. It is well known that Mr. Soros supported Hillary Clinton during the Presidential race, but what is lesser known is that he spent a lot of money to see that the Democrats remained in power and that the liberal ideals he holds dearly and has fought for all his life remain strong. Now that the election results are out, it’s evident that Mr. Soros has suffered a setback on a lot of fronts, but looking at the trades he made during the third quarter, it seems financial wasn’t one of them.

At the start of the year Mr. Soros was extremely bullish on gold and was quite vocal about it. His bullishness on gold paid off well, as gold prices surged by nearly 30% during the first seven months of the year. However, they have declined heavily in the current quarter, with most of those losses coming in after Mr. Trump’s victory was announced. Despite this bearish move against the commodity, Mr. Soros’ portfolio wasn’t affected much, as he had liquidated a large chunk of his gold holdings during the third quarter according to Soros Fund Management‘s recent 13F filing. The filing also revealed that during the third quarter the fund’s U.S equity portfolio experienced a turnover of 92.83% and that at the end of that period it was worth almost $4 billion. In this article, we will take a look at the five major moves made by the fund during the third quarter.

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SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSEARCA:GLD)

Let’s start with the SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSEARCA:GLD), which was one of Soros Fund Management’s major holdings at the end of the second quarter, worth $30.36 million at that time. The fund had initiated its stake in SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSEARCA:GLD) during the second quarter, but sold off that stake last quarter. Since the SPDR Gold Trust tracks and seeks to replicate the performance of the price of gold bullion, the decline it has seen in the current quarter is nearly the same as that of physical gold. However, it is still trading up by over 15% year-to-date.

 Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

– Shares Held By Soros Fund Management (as of September 30): 39,510

– Value of the Holding (as of September 30): $33.08 Million

Soros Fund Management reduced its stake in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 69% during the second quarter. However, it reversed its decision in the third quarter and increased its holding in the company by 215% during that time. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s stock has declined considerably in the last few weeks after the company reported its third-quarter results, which has wiped out the gains it made during the third quarter. Nevertheless, most analysts consider this a short-term correction and expect the stock to resume its uptrend soon, including analysts at Axiom Securities, who on November 11 reiterated their ‘Buy’ rating on the stock while upping their price target on it to $953 from $877. On Wednesday, the company launched a family plan for its music streaming service that will allow 6 users to access its service for a monthly fee of only $14.99.

We’ll check out two more of the fund’s stock picks on the next page.

Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX)

– Shares Held By Soros Fund Management (as of September 30): 2.85

– Value of the Holding (as of September 30): $50.54 Million

While Soros Fund Management sold its entire holding in the SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) during the third quarter, it increased its stake in Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) by 166% during the same time. Due to the decline in gold prices, Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX)’s stock has also cooled down a little in the current quarter, but it is still trading up by 133.41% for the year. For its most recent quarter, the gold mining company reported EPS of $0.24 on revenue of $2.30 billion versus analysts’ estimate of EPS $0.20 on revenue of $2.25 billion. For the same quarter of the previous year, Barrick Gold had declared EPS of $0.11 on revenue of $2.32 billion.

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TiVo Corp (NASDAQ:TIVO)

– Shares Held By Soros Fund Management (as of September 30): 4.12 Million

– Value of the Holding (as of September 30): $80.28 million

TiVo Corp (NASDAQ:TIVO)’s stock was a new addition to Soros Fund Management’s equity portfolio during the third quarter. Prior to that, the fund held convertible debt of the company, which it had acquired during the second quarter and liquidated during the third quarter. Although shares of the software services company have remained mostly range-bound since mid-2012, they have appreciated by 26.5% so far in 2016. On November 3, TiVo Corp (NASDAQ:TIVO) reported its fiscal 2016 third quarter numbers, declaring net income of $49.9 million on revenue of $153.1 million. For the same quarter of last year, the company had declared a net loss of $18.5 million on revenue of $114.9 million.

Williams Companies Inc (NYSE:WMB)

– Shares Held By Soros Fund Management (as of September 30): 3.17 Million

– Value of the Holding (as of September 30): $97.45 Million

Williams Companies Inc (NYSE:WMB) made its debut in Soros Fund Management’s equity portfolio during the third quarter and was the fund’s eighth-largest position, in terms of value, at the end of that period. Williams Companies Inc (NYSE:WMB) lost a major chunk of its market cap during the second-half of 2015, but has managed to recoup some of that this year. A significant amount of the gain that the stock has seen this year can be attributed to Keith Meister and his hedge fund Corvex Capital, which has held an active stake in the company for the past several quarters and forced it to revamp its Board recently. Earlier this year, Williams Companies slashed its quarterly dividend from $0.64 per share to $0.20 per share, which still translates into a respectable forward yield of 2.65%. According to a lot of analysts, while the dividend cut may have made the stock unattractive to potential investors in the short-term, it will help the company in the long run. On November 11, analysts at Citigroup reiterated their ‘Buy’ rating on the stock, while upping their price target on it to $32 from $30.

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