Five Notable Moves by Billionaire George Soros’ Fund

Equinix Inc (NASDAQ:EQIX)

– Shares Owned by Soros Fund Management (as of March 31): 206,215

– Value of Holding (as of March 31): $68.2 million

Soros Fund Management upped its stake in data centers company Equinix Inc (NASDAQ:EQIX) by 111% during the first quarter. Due to a 243% rise in its stock in the last five years and the tremendous growth the company has shown during that time, several analysts consider Equinix Inc (NASDAQ:EQIX) as the best play in the cloud space currently. While the stock has already appreciated 14% so far this year, many of those analysts believe that it will continue to move higher in the coming quarters led by the growth in hybrid cloud and Internet of Things (IoT). On May 5, analysts at Stifel Nicolaus reiterated their ‘Buy’ rating on the stock while boosting their price target on it to $380 from $340, which represents a potential upside of 10% from the stock’s current trading price.  The company recently sold eight of its European data centers to Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) for $874 million. Hedge funds that lowered their stake in during the first quarter included Jeffrey Tannenbaum’s Fir Tree, which brought its holding down by 6% to 688,201 shares.

Zoetis Inc (NYSE:ZTS)

– Shares Owned by Soros Fund Management (as of March 31): 2.32 milion

– Value of Holding (as of March 31): $102.71 million

After reducing its stake in Zoetis Inc (NYSE:ZTS) by 4% during the last quarter of 2015, Soros Fund Management further reduced it by 31% during the first quarter. Shares of  Zoetis Inc (NYSE:ZTS)’s stock has held on quite well amid the downturn in the pharmaceutical sector this year, losing only 2.5% of its value so far in 2016. While some analysts attribute the reason for that outperformance to the different space in which the company operates (animal vaccines and medicines) versus other large biopharmaceutical companies, others attribute it to the consistent effort the company has been making in increasing efficiency and improving its margins. In his first quarter letter to investors, Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman wrote about Zoetis: ” We continue to be pleased with management’s performance and have high expectations for the company. […] We no longer feel that our presence on the board is required as the company continues to generate strong progress as evidenced by first quarter results.” According to a recent regulatory filing by Pershing Square, as of May 10, it owns 24.97 million or 5.0% of Zoetis’ outstanding stock.