In this article, we discuss the 5 stocks that George Soros and Jim Cramer love. If you want to read about some more stocks in the portfolio of Soros and Cramer, go directly to George Soros and Jim Cramer Love These Stocks.
5. Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (BTS:CBOE)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders:
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (BTS:CBOE) operates as an options exchange worldwide. According to the latest data, Soros Fund Management owned 331,816 shares in Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (BTS:CBOE) at the end of the third quarter of 2023 worth $51 million, representing 0.73% of the portfolio.
Earlier this week, during the Lightning Round of his show, Jim Cramer underlined his bullish views on Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (BTS:CBOE) in response to a caller question on the firm. Cramer said, “Cboe is fantastic. I mean, these companies coin money, and they’re very well-run, and that is a buy, even up here”.
4. Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLK)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 67
Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLK) provides software and cloud platform solutions. It is headquartered in California. Soros Fund Management owned 574,962 shares in Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLK) worth $84 million at the end of September 2023, representing 1.19% of the portfolio.
In September this year, in an article for news platform CNBC, Jim Cramer highlighted the strides that Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLK) in the past few years, attracting the attention of top cloud companies like Cisco Systems that were looking to purchase the firm. Cramer had previously named the firm among a group of firms he called “Cloud Kings”.
Among the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Florida-based investment firm Pentwater Capital Management is a leading shareholder in Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLK) with 2.5 million shares worth more than $370 million.
In its Q3 2023 investor letter, Fred Alger Management, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLK) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:
“Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLK) is a software platform for searching, monitoring, and analyzing machine-generated data in real time. The company collects data from a wide variety of sources, including application logs, web server logs, network devices, and security systems. Splunk then indexes and stores this data in a searchable format, making it easy to query and analyze. It can be used to detect and respond to security threats such as malware intrusions and data breaches. During the quarter, shares of Splunk contributed to performance after receiving an all-cash acquisition offer of $28 billion from Cisco. With unanimous approval from both boards, the company expects to complete the transaction by the third quarter of 2024.”
3. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 286
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is a diversified technology firm with core interests in ecommerce. Securities filings show that Soros Fund Management owned 764,061 shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) at the end of September 2023 worth $97 million, representing 1.37% of the portfolio.
Earlier this year, Jim Cramer said he saw a path to even greater upside for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in the coming months, saying that management of the firm had figured out how to make a lot of money again in the retail sector.
Among the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Chicago-based investment firm Citadel Investment Group is a leading shareholder in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) with 34 million shares worth more than $4.3 billion.
In its Q3 2023 investor letter, Polen Capital, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:
“Amazon continues to showcase it’s place as one of the most competitively advantaged companies in the world. The company has made significant progress in managing costs and better leveraging existing capacity, driving a strong recovery in its profitability. We think there’s additional room for improvement.
AWS growth seems to be stabilizing even while management continues to work with clients to optimize their infrastructure spend. Roughly 90% of global IT spending remains on premise. We believe this will eventually flip, with most IT spending ultimately moving to the cloud over time. We think AWS will be a significant beneficiary of this transition.
Further, our investment case on company profitability driven by AWS and advertising continues to unfold, delivering nearly $8 billion in free cash flow over the trailing twelve months and a net margin of 5%. We expect both to move higher with the mix shift of more profitable businesses growing fastest continuing to take effect.
At Amazon’s current price, we believe the company is well positioned to deliver a mid-teens or higher total shareholder return for our clients over the next five plus years without a Herculean effort from the business. It simply needs to continue executing on current businesses and growing into the capacity it built during and immediately after the pandemic.”
2. Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 51
Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) is a healthcare firm based in Denmark. Latest filings reveal that Soros Fund Management owned 1.5 million shares in Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) at the end of the third quarter of 2023 worth $138 million, representing 1.96% of the portfolio.
Jim Cramer has repeatedly highlighted the incredible market opportunity offered by weight loss drugs and the firms that make them, like Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO). Cramer believes investors will favor these firms over other firms making diabetes medicine.
At the end of the third quarter of 2023, 51 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $2.2 billion in Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO), compared to 43 in the previous quarter worth $778 million.
In its Q3 2023 investor letter, Polen Capital highlighted a few stocks and Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:
“We added new positions in Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) in the third quarter. We have been monitoring Lilly and Novo Nordisk for some time, and new clinical results from a recent drug trial give us confidence in the large upside potential for GLP-1s. These results from a Novo Nordisk study showed impressive cardiovascular outcomes for its GLP-1, Wegovy. This study of over 17,000 overweight or obese people with established cardiovascular disease (but without diabetes) showed that Wegovy reduced the likelihood of major adverse cardiovascular events (heart attack, stroke, sudden cardiac death) by over 20% for up to five years. This large and well-controlled trial helps to demonstrate that the weight loss benefits of GLP-1s (likely similar for Mounjaro and Wegovy) lead to better health outcomes for patients and likely save the healthcare system significant amounts of money over the long term. In our view, this makes it very unlikely that payors and governments will deny patient access and reimbursement for these drugs for the long haul (hence the positive stock price moves for Lilly and Novo when the data was released mid-quarter).
We have started with a small 1% position in Lilly, but when paired with our new holding in Novo Nordisk at 2% (NVO is slightly larger as its valuation is lower), it represents a 3% combined position in the two companies we expect to maintain a duopoly in this large drug class over the next several years.
Novo Nordisk has a long history as the leader in diabetes pharmaceuticals. It is much more narrowly focused on diabetes than Lilly with its GLP-1 drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy (Wegovy is the same drug as Ozempic but uses a different name for obesity), driving most of the company’s revenue and earnings growth. The cardiovascular outcomes trial mentioned above is a big positive for Novo. It establishes the duopoly with Lilly in insulin management for Type 2 diabetics and weight loss for the huge number of overweight and obese people across the globe.
Novo has more legacy diabetes products that its newer drugs will cannibalize, but our research indicates that we can expect high-teens earnings per share growth from Novo over the next five years. In addition, both Novo and Lilly have next-generation diabetes and weight loss drugs in development that appear even more effective than the current offerings while also offering new treatment modalities, such as oral drugs versus today’s auto injectables.”
1. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 163
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is a California-based technology firm. Regulatory filings reveal that Soros Fund Management owned over 1.4 million shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) at the end of the third quarter of 2023 worth $183 million, representing 2.60% of the portfolio.
Earlier this year, Jim Cramer outlined his bullish views on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in response to a caller question about the firm on the Lightning Round of his show. He said, “Yes, you can still buy that. A monster good quarter, and the stock hasn’t really run. I’m going to say I’m going to bless buying that stock”.
Among the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Texas-based investment firm Fisher Asset Management is a leading shareholder in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) with 43 million shares worth more than $5.7 billion.
In its Q3 2023 investor letter, Weitz Investment Management, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:
“As for other quarterly contributors, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Meta Platforms, Inc., (META) added to their exceptional year-to-date returns. Meta Platforms and Alphabet were the true year-to-date standouts. After steep declines in 2022, both stocks rebounded sharply due to a combination of solid fundamentals, disciplined operational execution, and improved sentiment. Despite outsized gains and attention, we think both Alphabet and Meta remain undervalued.”
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