Billionaire George Soros’s Long Term Stock Picks Include Google Inc (GOOG)

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In addition to using our database of quarterly 13F filings from hedge funds and other notable investors as a tool in researching investment strategies (we have found, for example, that the most popular small cap stocks among hedge funds generate an average excess return of 18 percentage points per year), we can also use it to track individual filers over time and identify stocks which they have owned for multiple quarters or even years. In this way investors interested in using 13Fs as a potential source of initial investment ideas should have less concerns over the age of filings (the most recently released ones disclose long equity positions in U.S. stocks as of the end of March). Here are five stocks which billionaire George Soros owned at least $20 million of in his most recent 13F and had also owned at the end of March 2011 (or see the full list of his most recent stock picks):

The billionaire’s fund owned about 26 million shares of Adecoagro SA (NYSE:AGRO), a $780 million market cap South American agricultural company (with over 250,000 shares traded per day on average, and a current stock price of over $6.30, there is over $1 million in daily dollar volume). The stock has fallen over 30% in the last year as profitability has been low, but Wall Street analysts expect performance to turn around. Their forecasts for 2014 have the stock trading at 9 times forward earnings estimates; many other agriculture related companies are also in value territory.

SOROS FUND MANAGEMENTSoros has recently cut his stake in Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI), but still closed March with 1.7 million shares in his portfolio. The company’s earnings grew by 22% in its last quarterly report compared to the first quarter of 2012, but revenue numbers were flat suggesting that future improvements on the bottom line might be limited. The sell-side is optimistic, however, as looking ahead to next year the forward P/E is 14- at least close to where Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI) might be considered to have value potential- and the five-year PEG ratio is just below 1.

In the first quarter of 2011, Soros had initiated a position in auto parts company Visteon Corporation (NYSE:VC); two years later it was still one of his stock picks with the 13F disclosing ownership of about 370,000 shares. Similarly to Adecoagro SA (NYSE:AGRO) and Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI), Visteon Corporation (NYSE:VC) is an analyst darling: due in part to high expectations for the auto industry as U.S. consumers replace their historically old auto fleet, earnings per share are forecast to rise enough over the next several years that the PEG ratio comes in at 0.6. We’d be interested in comparing Visteon Corporation (NYSE:VC) to other auto related companies.

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