Liberty Broadband (LBRDK) & Activision Blizzard (ATVI) Among George Soros’ Soros Fund Management’s Top New Picks

One of the greatest hedge fund managers of all time, George Soros is currently not actively involved in the day-to-day activity of his family office. Still, one should pay attention to the moves reported by the fund, as Soros has employed top portfolio managers to take care of his fortune. Soros Fund Management had an equity portfolio valued at $4.67 billion at the end of the second quarter, mainly invested in technology and financial stocks. The portfolio suffered some major changes, as the management team sold out of 133 positions and added 79 new ones, some of which have went straight to the top. In this article we’ll take a look at the top 5 new positions reported in the fund’s latest 13F filing.

While there are many metrics that investors can assess in the investment process, hedge fund sentiment is something that is often overlooked. However, hedge funds and other institutional investors allocate significant resources while making their bets and their long-term focus makes them the perfect investors to emulate. This is supported by our research, which determined that following the small-cap stocks that hedge funds are collectively bullish on can help a smaller investor beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see more details here).

Everybody Loves Activision Blizzard

Opening our top five is Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI), the video game developer behind hits like Call of Duty and Starcraft. During the second quarter, Soros Fund Management acquired 378,981 shares valued at a little over $15 million at the end of June. Hedge fund interest towards Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) picked up during the quarter, with the number of long hedge fund positions (among the funds we track) rising to 68 at the end of June from 52 registered at the end of March. Billionaire Ken Griffin is also very bullish on this stock, having increased his fund’s investment by 627% to approximately 5.63 million shares worth $223 million. The rise in popularity of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) is down to a well planned expansion strategy that is finally paying off. Whereas Activision Blizzard used to have just a handful of gaming brands that accounted for most its revenue, in the recent years the company expanded its portfolio considerably and has entered the market for mobile gaming with the acquisition of King Digital, the maker of Candy Crush.

Bet On Argentinian Bank

Next up is Grupo Supervielle SA -ADR (NYSE:SUPV), an Argentinian company engaged mainly in financial services sector. According to its latest 13F filing, George Soros’ fund amassed 1.37 million shares during the quarter, a position worth $17.5 million at the end of June. The company went public at the end of May with a global offering of 127.5 million shares. In the United States, Grupo Supervielle SA -ADR (NYSE:SUPV) offered shares represented by 23.6 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at $11.00 per unit. Since then, the stock has been steadily advancing, currently up by 34.5% through Friday’s closing price of $14.8 per share. The company was established in 1887 and is currently run by the Supervielle family, having a strong presence in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area as well as Mendoza and San Luis. At the end of the second quarter, roughly 19% of Grupo Supervielle SA -ADR (NYSE:SUPV) common stock was held by 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey. Dan Loeb has also shown great interest in the company, as his fund, Third Point, established the largest new position: 4.5 million shares valued at $57.5 million.

Turn the page to find out more about Soros Fund Management’s top three new stock picks.

Soros Bets On Communications Infrastructure

Soros Fund Management’s team was also looking for investment opportunities in the real estate business and identified Communications Sales & Leasing Inc (NASDAQ:CSAL) as a good bet. By the end of June, the fund managed to acquire 730,898 shares reportedly worth $21.1 million. Communications Sales & Leasing Inc (NASDAQ:CSAL) engages in the construction and maintenance of communications infrastructure. The company has a market cap of $4.84 billion and pays an annual dividend of $2.40 per share, providing shareholders with a nice 7.84% yield. For the second quarter, Communications Sales & Leasing posted $84.5 million in funds from operations, or $0.56 per share, which is a key metric in the industry. The company also reported a loss of $2.9 million or $0.02 per share on the back of $188.6 million in revenue. Communications Sales & Leasing Inc (NASDAQ:CSAL) gained a boost of popularity among the funds in our database, with 24 of them having reported a position as of the end of June, up from 15 registered three months earlier. Among the funds followed by Insider Monkey, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group held the largest stake in Communications Sales & Leasing. According to its latest 13F filing, the fund held 3.16 million shares, up by 439% from the previous quarter.

Betting On The Underdog

TiVo Corp (NASDAQ:ROVI) is another major bet George Soros’ underlings decided to undertake during the second quarter. As reported in its latest 13F filing, Soros Fund Management held 4.07 million shares of the video technology software company, a position valued at $63.6 million. In general, hedge fund interest in TiVo Corp (NASDAQ:ROVI) faded a bit during the quarter, as the number of funds invested in the company dropped to 22 from 24 at the end of the first quarter. Richard Driehaus is also optimistic about the prospects of the company, having also established a new position that amounted to 3.02 million shares at the end of June. TiVo Corp (NASDAQ:ROVI) is the product of the merger between TiVo Inc and Rovi Corporation. At the end of April, Rovi announced a $1.1 billion deal to take over TiVo, with the combined company holding more than 6,000 pending and registered patents. The companies decided to join forces as the latest trend sees consumers switching from traditional TV viewing habits to cloud-based services like Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX).

Liberty Broadband Sparked Great Interest

George Soros’ number one new equity position at the end of the second quarter was in Liberty Broadband Corp (NASDAQ:LBRDK). Valued at $533 million, Soros Fund Management’s stake amounted to 8.89 million shares and was also its largest equity position at the end of the quarter. During the second quarter, the number of hedge funds holding Class C shares of Liberty Broadband Corp (NASDAQ:LBRDK) increased to 43 from 39 recorded a quarter before. Barry Rosenstein‘s JANA Partners made a big bullish bet on Liberty Broadband, having acquired 9.21 million Class C shares valued at $552 million at the end of June. Valued at $12.8 billion, Liberty Broadband Corp (NASDAQ:LBRDK) has two main assets: a stake in Charter Communications Inc (NASDAQ:CHTR) and its wholly-owned subsidiary TruePosition, which offers positioning and location intelligence solutions. So far this year, the stock has been mainly in an uptrend, advancing nearly 38% through Friday’s closing price of $70.23 per share.

Disclosure: none.