George Soros’ Top 5 Stock Picks

Below are George Soros’ top 5 stock picks. For a comprehensive list please see Is George Soros Still Good At Picking Stocks At The Age of 90?.

5. DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ:DKNG)

Casinos and gaming company DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ: DKNG) underperformed for George Soros fund during the fourth quarter but shares of DraftKings are still up 51% in the last six months. The fund first initiated a position in casinos and gaming company during the second quarter of 2020.

Although the overall hedge fund positions declined by 10 in the September quarter, it is still in 43 hedge fund portfolios. Alger Mid Cap Focus Fund highlighted the pros and cons of DraftKings in an investor’s letter. Here is what Alger Mid Cap Focus Fund stated:

“DraftKings is an online gaming operator. Its Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) allows users to virtually draft teams of players from professional sports leagues and potentially earn a payout based on how well their teams compete with results driven by how athletes perform in real life. DraftKings Online Sports Betting (OSB) involves the company taking wagers or bets from customers on sporting events. DraftKings’ third offering. Online Casino, involves customers betting real money when playing casino games like slots and blackjack online. Investors’ concerns that DraftKings’ revenues could be hurt by the pandemic suspending sporting events have been unfounded with professional football, basketball, baseball, hockey and college football continuing without significant disruption, which has supported the performance of DraftKings’ shares. Additionally, DraftKings has entered a marketing deal with ESPN. which could potentially lower the gaming company’s customer acquisition costs as well as shut out competitors from using the channel for marketing. A record high level of sports betting in New Jersey during August, strong monthly results for online gaming in the same state and Pennsylvania results also supported the performance of DraftKings shares. Investors also responded favorably to DraftKings launching online sports betting in Illinois.”

4. The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAIN)

George Soros fund has also benefited from its stake in The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAIN) over the last two quarters. Shares of Hain Celestial Group rallied 17% in the fourth quarter, extending the six months gains to 29%. Its share price rally is backed by robust growth in financial numbers. The fund is holding 4.39 million shares of packaged food company value around $150 million.

Activist Engaged Capital has a $500+ million position in HAIN, accounting for nearly 57% of its portfolio.

3. Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR)

The software application platform Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE: PLTR) is a newcomer in Soros Fund Management 13F portfolio. Soros’ stock-picking strategy helped in generating massive gains from its Palantir stake. The fund disclosed a position in Palantir in its 13F because the data analytics software company went public during the third quarter. Shares of Palantir rallied almost 160% in the fourth quarter of 2020. After revealing its large Palantir stake, Soros Fund Management told CNN Business that “Soros Fund Management’s current stake in Palantir amounts to about 1% of the voting shares of Palantir and was a result of an early-stage investment made in 2012 by a portfolio manager who no longer works at Soros.”

Soros Fund Management also told in its statement that it doesn’t approve Palantir’s business practices and it made the initial investment in Palantir when “the negative social consequences of big data were less understood” and it wouldn’t make the same investment in this controversial stock today. Due to being an early investor and lockup restrictions, Soros Fund Management isn’t allowed to sell all of its positions in PLTR today, but it sounds like the fund will cash out as soon as it is legally allowed to do so.

Palantir has generated more than 50% revenue growth in the September quarter, with expectations that full-year revenue will hit the $1.07 billion levels.

2. D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI)

The home building company is the long-running investment of Soros Fund Management and the fund has raised its stake in the home building company by 70% in the September quarter. Although D.R. Horton underperformed during the fourth quarter, its shares are up 23% in the last twelve months. In addition to share price gains, the company also offers dividends to investors. Soros Fund was holding 3 million shares of D.R. Horton at the end of the September quarter, accounting for 5.66% of the overall portfolio.

We talked about DHI in our 11 Best Homebuilder Stocks To Buy Now article:

“As for Strategic Wealth Partners’ Mark Tepper, “I like the overweight D.R. Horton, the underweight Pulte concept,”. Mark said that D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) is his favorite homebuilder. According to him, there are 3 major key trends that are moving the housing market. “You’ve got the geographical trend, which is people moving from cities to suburbs, you’ve got the generational trend, which is the millennials buying their first homes, and then you’ve got the work-from-home trend,” he marked while adding that people are spending ‘more time’ at home which leads them to want their homes to be nicer, bigger and newer.

Tepper stated that first-time buyers will suit D.R. Horton’s specialty which is affordable entry-level homes, that actually meet the 3 major trend criteria he mentioned. “The number one thing you need when you build a house is the land to build it on and D.R. Horton’s land strategy really helps them,”.

1. Liberty Broadband Corporation (NASDAQ:LBRDK)

The communication services mid-cap Liberty Broadband Corporation (NASDAQ: LBRDK) is the largest stock holding of Soros Fund Management, accounting for 18.48% of the overall portfolio. It is the long-running position of Soros Fund Management and the fund appears to have profited from its Liberty Broadband stake. The fund first initiated a position in Liberty Broadband in 2016.

Shares of Liberty Broadband Corporation rallied 7% in the fourth quarter of 2020, extending the five years gains to over 200%. The following paragraph from Giverny Capital’s Q3 investor letter probably explains why George Soros is also invested in Liberty Broadband:

“Liberty Broadband is a holding company that owns shares in the cable operator Charter. Each Liberty share essentially holds 0.295 shares of Charter. Based on a recent market price for Charter of $620, Liberty shares should be worth about $180. Instead, they’ve been trading for about $140. The discount strikes us as too wide, so we added slightly to our position.”

Please also see Billionaire Daniel Sundheim’s Top 10 Stock Pick and 10 Best Tech Stocks To Buy Now.

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