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Showing posts with label Bill Ackman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bill Ackman. Show all posts

How George Soros Plays The Stock Market

The following article was written by our guest author Insider Monkey. Opinions of George Soros vary depending on whom you ask, but there’s no arguing against the Hungarian-American hedge fund manager’s investing pedigree. Earlier this month, Soros shared his thoughts on the Eurozone crisis at the Global Economic Symposium, and most of the usual headlines that surround the billionaire are focused on his macroeconomic views.

That’s all fine and dandy. We’d like to point out, though, that George Soros’ Soros Fund Management does maintain a $9 billion equity portfolio too. Due to the market-beating potential of hedge funds’ best stock picks (discover how we returned 47.6% in our first year), it’s useful to understand how a prominent investor like Soros is playing the stock market.

At the end of last quarter, George Soros and his management team disclosed a little over 200-equity holdings, with 15% of their capital allocated to their top five stock picks. This level of concentration is not uncommon for a large hedge fund, but a few of the specific names may surprise you.

Google

Other than Google [GOOG], that is. It’s really not very difficult to understand why the tech company is Soros’ No. 1 stock. Google was hedge funds’ favorite pick in the latest round of 13F filings, ahead of AIG [AIG] and Apple [AAPL]. Aside from offering a bevy of long-term product innovations like self-driving cars or smart thermostats, more immediate catalysts are the launch of the Moto X and next year’s release of Google Glass.

Both devices play into Wall Street’s bullish earnings estimates for Google, in which it expects 17% to 18% EPS growth in 2014 and 15% annual growth over the next half-decade. This trumps peers like Yahoo [s:YHOO] and even Apple. In addition to Soros’ bullishness, big-name fund managers Ray Dalio and Israel Englander have initiated Google positions in the last few months.

J.C. Penney

This is what we meant when we said you might be surprised. J.C. Penney [JCP] represents everything Google does not: poor market performance in 2013, high CEO turnover, an inconsistent business plan, and an uncertain future. The retailer is going back to its pre-Ron Johnson coupon strategy, which leads some to believe that it can recapture most of its old customers, and is thus undervalued at current levels.

It’s easier to be skeptical of this move than it is to support a bullish thesis, so we have a rare case where Soros is acting as a contrarian by betting on a stock rather than against it. Assuming you are for a turnaround here, J.C. Penney trades at a mere 0.15 times sales, but earnings will have to pick up. Longs can’t take many more monumental bottom line whiffs. Last quarter the retailer missed sell-side estimates by 88%, and in the first quarter of the year, EPS fell short of consensus by 36%. In fact, J.C. Penney has been in the red for a year and a half now.

A few days ago, Richard Perry cut almost half of his position in the retailer and last month, Bill Ackman liquidated his entire stake. What’s so notable about both of these moves is that Ackman’s hedge fund had the largest stake in J.C. Penney at the end of last quarter while Perry was third.

The remaining three

After the antithetical duo of Google and J.C. Penney, Soros’ next largest holdings are Herbalife [HLF], Charter Communications [CHTR] and Johnson & Johnson [JNJ].

While Ackman and Carl Icahn continue to feud about the legitimacy of Herbalife’s marketing practices, George Soros continues to book gains. Since we know that he held shares of the company on the last day of June, it can be inferred that Soros has made at least a 51% return on his long position. If he initiated the stake earlier in the second quarter, like in early May for example, this return stretches to more than 70%. Either way, the billionaire has to be happy that it represents one of his biggest holdings.

Charter Communications, meanwhile, is another stock that is up big (+72%) in 2013. The cable entertainment company has been a long-term pick for Soros, sitting in his clutches since early 2011. The same can be said for Johnson & Johnson, which has been in Soros’ equity portfolio for exactly four quarters. Johnson & Johnson is a prototypical dividend-payer that has actually offered double-digit capital gains this year, while Charter is a growth play plain and simple.

All in all, the variety presented in George Soros’ five largest stock picks is truly one of the best things about this group. Google, J.C. Penney and Herbalife are the three we’ll watch the closest going forward, particularly when new 13F filings come in mid-November.

Disclosure: none

Bill Ackman’s Highest Yielding Dividend Stock Bets And His Complete Portfolio

Bill Ackman’s latest portfolio transactions and his biggest positions originally published at "long-term-investments.blogspot.com". Some of you might know Bill Ackman because of the phone battle against Carl Icahn on CNBC. He is an activist with around USD 10 billion in assets under management. In his management company “Pershing Square Capital” he has only 10 stock holdings.

As an activist, Ackman tries to increase pressure on the management of a company in order to implement own visions of the company’s future. Nearly half of his positions have voting rights over 10 percent.

His main investment focus is on defensive stocks from the consumer and industrial sector. Around 70 percent of his exposure is related to these two sectors.

Below is a small list of Bill Ackman’s latest Portfolio transactions. He is a lazy guy. Last quarter, he bought only one stock and he needed more than a year to complete his latest 20 transactions.

From his 20 latest transactions are 12 unique positions of which 10 pay dividends. Dividend payments are not in focus of Ackman’s investment strategy. Only one company yields above the 3 percent mark.

Bill Ackman - Pershing Square Capital Management Q4/2011 Portfolio

Bill Ackman - Pershing Square Capital Management Q4/2011 Fund Investing Strategies By Dividend Yield – Stock Capital, Investment. Here is a current portfolio update of Bill Ackman’s - Pershing Square Capital Management - portfolio movements as of Q4/2011 (December 31, 2011). In total, he has 10 stocks with a total portfolio worth of USD 7,765,656,000. Bill made major changes within the recent quarter. He bought Beam (BEAM) and Fortune Brands (FBHS). Finally, he added Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). His biggest sale was Fortune Brands (FO).

Bill Ackman - Pershing Square Capital Management Q3-2011 Portfolio

Bill Ackman - Pershing Square Capital Management Q3-2011 Fund Investing Strategies By Dividend Yield – Stock Capital, Investment. Here is a current portfolio update of Bill Ackman’s - Pershing Square Capital Management - portfolio movements as of Q3/2011 (September 30, 2011). In total, he has 10 stocks with a total portfolio worth of USD 6,016,279,000.

Bill Ackman’s stock positions as of Q3/2011 with actual share movements:

Sym - Stock
Portfolio Weight
Recent activity
Reported Price*
FO - Fortune Brands Inc.
18.71
Add 21.25%
$54.08
JCP - Penney (J.C.)
17.23
0
$26.78
GGP - Genl Growth Properties
14.53
0
$12.10
KFT - Kraft Foods Inc.
14.06
Add 13.28%
$33.58
C - Citigroup Inc.
11.12
Add 11.07%
$25.62
FDO - Family Dollar Stores
9.63
Add 2.65%
$50.86
LOW - Lowe's Cos.
6.83
Buy
$19.34
CP - Canadian Pacific Railway
3.23
Buy
$48.09
HHC - Howard Hughes Corp.
2.5
0
$42.10
ALEX - Alexander & Baldwin
2.16
0
$36.53





Related Stock Ticker:
FO, JCP, GGP, KFT, C, FDO, LOW, CP, HHC, ALEX

Bill Ackman - Pershing Square Capital Management Q2-2011 Portfolio

Bill Ackman - Pershing Square Capital Management Q2-2011 Fund Investing Strategies By Dividend Yield – Stock Capital, Investment. Here is a current portfolio update of Bill Ackman’s - Pershing Square Capital Management - portfolio movements as of Q2/2011 (June 30, 2011). In total, he held 9 stocks with a total portfolio worth of USD 6,393,657,000.

Bill Ackman’s - Pershing Square Capital Management - positions as of Q2/2011 with actual share movements:

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Related Stock Ticker:
C, FDO, JCP, FO, GGP, KFT, HHC, ALEX, GLRE, CXW,