Exa Corp (EXA) & Billionaire George Soros’ Other Three Tech Picks

Page 1 of 2

Billionaire George Soros‘ Soros Fund Management recently disclosed a new buy in $145.2 million cap company, Exa Corp (NASDAQ:EXA). The filling with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that Mr. Soros acquired 1.27 million shares of the company, which represent 9.15% of the company’s outstanding stock. The move comes amid the company reporting its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2015, which ended January 31, 2015. Revenue increased by 11% in the fourth quarter when compared to the same quarter one year prior, to $16.9 million from $15.2 million. Along with this, it reported a fiscal fourth-quarter loss of $1.1 million, versus a profit of around $100,000  in the same period a year earlier. For the year, revenue increased by 13% to $61.4 million, compared to $54.5 million in fiscal 2014. Also, it reported a significantly greater loss compared to the previous year, which widened to $19.2 million, from $(0.7) million in fiscal 2014.

George Soros

Exa Corp is a company that develops, sells, and supports simulation software and services for vehicle manufacturers. Among the funds that we track, another shareholder of Exa Corp (NASDAQ:EXA) is John H Lewis’ Osmium Partners, which holds some 444.100 shares as of the end of 2014, up by 6% on the quarter. The position valued at $5.2 million amasses 3.8% of the fund’s equity portfolio.

Aside from Exa Corp (NASDAQ:EXA), we should also take a look at some other investments of Soros Fund Management. The fund disclosed an equity portfolio valued at some $9.16 billion as of the end of 2014. The equity portfolio is mainly invested in Technology (27%), Health Care (18%), and Finance (11%) stocks. The fund also invests in many small-cap stocks, which is one more reason why we should follow closer its activity. Our research has showed that immitating the hedge fund’s activity among small-cap stocks can help beat the market by around 1.0 percentage point per month. Based on this research, we have been sharing 15 most popular small-cap picks among hedge funds in our newsletters since August 2012. Since then, our strategy returned 132%, beating the market by around 79 percentage points.

Since Mr. Soros has a significant exposure to the Technology sector, let’s take a look at three tech stocks in which the investor holds largest stakes in terms of value. These companies are Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), and Polycom Inc (NASDAQ:PLCM). 

Page 1 of 2