Billionaire George Soros Sold Citigroup Inc (C) During Q1, But Bought Google Inc (GOOG)

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US Airways. The filing showed Soros roughly doubling his holdings of US Airways Group Inc (NYSE:LCC) to a total of 7.8 million shares. US Airways Group Inc (NYSE:LCC) is in the process of buying American Airlines out of bankruptcy, which will allow greater industry consolidation and potentially higher prices (particularly, in the minds of analysts, on routes where the combined US Airways-American will have a high market share). In addition, the traditional poor performance of airlines has left many of these stocks candidates for value status; US Airways, for example, is valued at 6 times its trailing earnings. The billionaire trimmed his stake in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) during the quarter, but due to the rise in that stock’s price Soros’s top ten picks now include both airlines.

We think that the airline industry is worth taking a look at- even with its notoriety for bankruptcy, stocks are cheap enough  that we don’t think they should be ignored (though in the particular case of US Airways we’d be somewhat concerned with integration risk). We’re more uncertain about Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG): we like the business, but a good deal of future growth is already priced into the stock and so it might be fairly valued already. Citi and AIG, Soros’s sales, are cheap in book terms though many of Citi’s peers are also potential value plays and investors who are looking at it should consider other megabanks as well.

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.

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