In this article we take a look at George Soros Net Worth and Top 10 Holdings Heading into 2023.
Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), and D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI) are some of the top holdings of billionaire hedge fund titan and somewhat controversial philanthropist George Soros.
George Soros’ Soros Fund Management is the family office of the legendary money manager, which was closed to outside investors way back in 2011, when Soros was already 81 years old. Now 92, George Soros’ net worth is still significant at an estimated $8.5 billion according to Bloomberg, which ranks him as the 227th wealthiest people in the world.
The fact George Soros’ net worth ranks him that low is testament to how rapidly the 0.01% are accumulating wealth, as $8.5 billion would’ve ranked him 80th back in 2010. In fact, Soros actually ranked 35th at that time according to Forbes, with a net worth of $14 billion, trailing only Warren Buffett among money managers. He’s since been surpassed by several other money managers, including Jim Simons, Ken Griffin, Ray Dalio, and Steve Cohen.
Of course, closing your hedge fund to outside money and the enormous fees that can be generated from it will have that affect. But beyond that, Soros has also donated a significant portion of his wealth to various causes over the years, estimated to be as much as $32 billion. His family office now manages much of the wealth that has been poured into his philanthropic ventures, which have a combined $18 billion in assets under management. All told, Soros Fund Management has about $28 billion in assets under management.
A lot of those philanthropic donations have been earmarked for the Open Society Foundations, which Soros himself founded in 1979 with the aim of combating authoritarian regimes and building free and open societies (as its name suggests), among other initiatives that generally promote human rights. The group hasn’t been without controversy though, particularly when it comes to allegations of political interference (though that’s kind of the group’s stated aim). It’s also been criticized for a lack of transparency about its funding and the groups it supports (and why) even as it pushes for governments to be more transparent.
Moving away from George Soros’ net worth and what he’s been up to with his considerable wealth, let’s dig into his top ten holdings heading into 2023. Unlike many money managers this year, which have reshaped their portfolios to be more defensive, Soros and the fund’s chief executive and chief investment officer, Dawn Fitzpatrick, have generally remained aggressive, with big investments in numerous growth stocks, including EV maker Rivian, which had been Soros’ top holding for the previous three quarters heading into Q3.
Soros Fund Management’s 13F portfolio contained $5.86 billion in assets as of September 30, up from $5.62 billion a quarter earlier. About 35% of those assets were in consumer discretionary stocks, though the fund’s exposure to that sector is down considerably from 54% at the end of 2021. Finance, health, real estate, and tech stocks also constituted a noteworthy percentage of the fund’s asset allocation as of September 30.
Let’s check out which stocks Soros and his team are banking on heading into 2023 and beyond.
George Soros of Soros Fund Management
Our Methodology
The following data is gathered from Soros Fund Management’s latest 13F filing with the SEC. Note that Alleghany Corporation (NYSE:Y), which ranked as Soros’ sixth-largest holding on September 30, has been omitted from the list given that the company was acquired by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in October and is no longer a public company. We did include two other top holdings of Soros which were recently acquired given their additions are more material to their acquirer’s operations.
We follow hedge funds like Soros Fund Management because Insider Monkey’s research has uncovered that their consensus stock picks can deliver outstanding returns. All hedge fund data is based on the exclusive group of 900+ funds tracked by Insider Monkey that filed 13Fs for the Q3 2022 reporting period.
George Soros Net Worth and Top 10 Holdings Heading into 2023
10. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Value of Soros Fund Management’s 13F Position: $96.9 million
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 359
D.R. Horton, Inc., Rivian Automotive, Inc., and Amazon.com, Inc. represent an eclectic mix of billionaire George Soros’ top ten holdings heading into 2023. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) also surges into the top ten after Soros’ family office raised its stake in the tech giant by 1,806% during Q3 to over 1.01 million shares.
Alphabet Inc. shares got battered in 2022, losing 39% of their value, as investors worry about the state of the advertising market, which accounts for about 80% of Alphabet’s revenue. Not only is the overall state of advertising a concern, but more specifically Alphabet’s place within it, as Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) and Alphabet’s collective control of the market has now slipped below 50%. Nonetheless, there’s little doubt that Alphabet will retain a strong grip on the advertising market for years to come, while its cloud and Web3 businesses help facilitate the company’s overall growth.
Stewart Asset Management likes Alphabet Inc. ability to grow earnings even during recessionary periods, as discussed in the fund’s Q3 2022 investor letter:
“We invest in businesses with strong, resilient earnings growth which are less cyclical. In the pandemic recession of 2020, the aggregate earnings of the portfolios we manage did not decline year-over-year, and in fact grew, albeit modestly. Looking at the Great Recession which began at year-end 2007 and lasted to mid-year 2009 is helpful too. Our four largest current holdings in the portfolio weathered that period well. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), then called Google, reported earnings that doubled from 2007 to 2010.”
9. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)
Value of Soros Fund Management’s 13F Position: $97.5 million
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 119
Cloud-based customer management platform operator Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) further diversifies the investing icon’s top holdings. Soros Fund Management raised its stake in the company by 8% during Q3 to 677,579 shares.
Salesforce, Inc. is one of Jim Cramer’s 5 Comeback Stocks after the company’s shares got battered by 48% in 2022. Salesforce’s sales growth has ticked down this year amid a challenging recessionary environment that has companies pulling back on their spending somewhat, but it certainly hasn’t slowed enough to justify the massive pullback in the stock.
During the nine months of 2022 between February and October, the company grew sales by 20% year-over-year, down from 25% growth during the same period a year earlier. And longer-term, Salesforce has a tremendous growth opportunity both in the U.S and abroad, with a total addressable market that the company estimates at $290 billion by 2026, about 9x greater than the revenue Salesforce is projected to pull in during its fiscal 2023 year ended January 31, 2023.
Aristotle Atlantic sold off Salesforce, Inc. in Q3, expressing doubts about the company’s projected $50 billion FY26 revenue in the fund’s Q3 2022 investor letter:
“We sold Salesforce, Inc. to reduce our weighting in the Information Technology sector. Salesforce held their investor day, and the company reiterated their organic Fiscal Year 2026 revenue target of $50 billion. This target remains more back-end loaded based on current slowing macroeconomic conditions and requires new annual contract growth well ahead of what the company has been averaging for the past few years. We are skeptical that the company will be able to achieve this revenue target organically and see Merger & Acquisitions (M&A) being key to achieving the growth. While we believe Salesforce has shown good success in growing its non-CRM clouds, we do see more competitive pressures emerging for the Marketing and Customer Service Clouds, specifically on the pricing side during a global economic slowdown.”
8. Liberty Broadband Corporation (NASDAQ:LBRDA)
Value of Soros Fund Management’s 13F Position: $103 million
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 86
Soros Fund Management cut its stake in Liberty Broadband Corporation (NASDAQ:LBRDA) by 21% during Q3 to 1.39 million shares, which wasn’t enough to knock the stock out of its top ten holdings. There’s been a 22% decline in hedge fund ownership of LBRDA since the end of 2020, when the stock was among the 30 most popular among hedge funds.
Despite LBRDA shares sliding by 53% in 2022, Liberty Broadband Corporation continues to trade at a discount to its net asset value, which may be why Soros likes the stock as a long-term investment. One of the company’s primary assets is a 26% ownership stake in Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR), which is being all but written off by investors due to that company’s lackluster short-term customer growth (or lack thereof).
Weitz Investment Management took a deep dive into Liberty Broadband Corporation’s Charter investment in its Q3 2022 investor letter:
“We believe this to be the case for Liberty Broadband Corporation (owner of 26% of broadband provider Charter Communications). As one of the Fund›s largest positions and its outsized impact as the top detractor for the quarter and year-to-date periods, a more detailed discussion of our continued optimism is warranted.
Investors have apparently extrapolated that Charter’s recent string of lackluster broadband customer growth portends zero (or negative) growth into perpetuity. Skeptics point to early customer wins for wireless broadband offerings and fiber-network operators’ plans to aggressively expand their footprints as evidence that Charter’s (and cable operators’, generally) ability to add subscribers is permanently impaired. We disagree. Wireless broadband will likely continue to win customers in areas where wired infrastructure is unavailable or by expanding the market to new customer segments (e.g., construction trailers, food trucks, etc.). That said, the carriers face an important trade-off, as fixed wireless is a lower-return usage of scarce network capacity. As fixed and mobile data usage inexorably grow, we believe carriers will prioritize their traditional mobility business at the expense of expanding their fixed wireless base. With respect to growing competition from fiber-to-the-home operators, Charter’s footprint is already roughly 40% overbuilt and has been competing successfully for over a decade. As fiber companies look to enact previously announced expansion plans, inflationary pressures for labor, equipment, and funding costs may reduce their ultimate appetites…” (Click here to read the full text)
7. Bowlero Corp. (NYSE:BOWL)
Value of Soros Fund Management’s 13F Position: $108 million
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 17
Soros Fund trimmed its stake in Bowlero Corp. (NYSE:BOWL) by 10% during Q3 to 8.8 million shares. Nonetheless, the fund holds a nearly 5% stake in the company and the largest position in it among the select group of leading hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey’s database.
If you’re of the mind that investing in a company that operates bowling centers isn’t an exciting or high-growth opportunity, you’re surely not alone, but Bowlero Corp. just might prove otherwise. There’s a reason BOWL shares crushed the broader market in 2022, gaining 53%, as the company continues to expand and grow at a rapid rate.
In Bowlero Corp.’s Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript, the company revealed that it grew adjusted EBITDA ($65 million) by 11% year-over-year in its fiscal Q1 and by 162% compared to pre-pandemic levels. Its revenue has likewise surged by 56% compared to pre-pandemic levels in the first 18 weeks of its fiscal 2023 year, including a 36% jump in same-store sales. So Bowlero isn’t just growing compared to weaker pandemic comps or primarily due to its expansion (it has about 10% more bowling centers now than it did at the start of FY22, 325 in total); it’s pulling in significantly more revenue and generating far more cash across the board.
6. Aramark (NYSE:ARMK)
Value of Soros Fund Management’s 13F Position: $114 million
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 35
Soros’ stake in Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) was inched up by 2% during Q3, with the billionaire’s family office owning 3.66 million ARMK shares on September 30. Hedge fund ownership of the stock has risen during each of the past three quarters, climbing by 35% during that time.
Philadelphia-based Aramark, which provides food, hospitality, and facilities services to a variety of industries, benefited greatly in its fiscal 2022 from continued reopenings in areas such as business and education.
In its Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript, Aramark noted that it generated about $790 million in net new business in its fiscal 2022 in terms of client retention, which was about 750% higher than its historical five-year average between fiscal years 2016 and 2020. So it continues to grow its business and retain both new and existing customers at strong rates (95%), which sets it up well to achieve its longer-term growth targets.
Amazon.com, Inc., D.R. Horton, Inc., and Rivian Automotive, Inc. are all in George Soros’ top five holdings entering 2023, see where they rank by clicking the link below.
5. D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI)
Value of Soros Fund Management’s 13F Position: $176 million
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 43
Kicking off the top five of billionaire George Soros’ top holdings is homebuilder D.R. Horton, Inc., which the wealthy philanthropist’s family office trimmed its stake in by 13% during Q3, ending the quarter with 2.62 million shares. Hedge fund ownership of DHI dipped during each of the first three quarters of 2022, falling by 22% during that time.
Despite a challenging macro environment for homebuilders which is expected to persist throughout 2023, D.R. Horton, Inc. has posted some impressive results. In its fiscal Q4, the company grew sales by 19% to $9.6 billion, while its EPS jumped by 26% year-over-year to $4.67. Wedbush analyst Jay McCanless believes DHI is one of the homebuilder stocks that is worth owning in 2023 should the rate environment be favorable, given its ability to more quickly react to market demands and build homes in a timely manner. He has an ‘Outperform’ rating on the stock.
According to Third Avenue Management, D.R. Horton, Inc. complies with Founder Marty Whitman’s “Safe and Cheap” maxim, as discussed in the fund’s Q2 2022 investor letter:
“D.R. Horton, Inc. is the largest homebuilder in the US by volume (the company sold more than 90k homes in the past year) with a well-recognized focus on delivering quality product at the entry-level price point (its average selling price is less than $400k) and market-leading positions in key Sunbelt markets.
While the near-term outlook for DR Horton remains uncertain given the adjustments occurring in the US residential markets, the medium-to-long-term prospects for volume-based homebuilders with super-strong balance sheets and scale advantages continues to be promising in Fund Management’s view. More specifically, (i) residential inventories remain around record-low levels in most major markets when gauged by aggregate units available (see chart below), (ii) demand for single-family residences seem to have multiple secular drivers as the largest generation in US history (the “millennial cohort”) enters its prime home buying years and desires more space not only due to “life events” but also “remote” and “hybrid” working arrangements, and (iii) significant inflation in rental rates for multi-family units in urban areas has left the rent-to-own proposition for single-family homes in suburban areas in a compelling range (particularly in the Sunbelt region which is experiencing outsized job growth and wage growth relative to broader national figures).
In Fund Management’s view, the two industry participants that seem most likely to take part in this shift include DR Horton and Lennar Corp. (a long-held position in the Fund). In conjunction, these two “blue-chip builders” now account for approximately 10% of the Fund’s capital, as well as roughly one out of every five new homes built in the Sunbelt. They would also qualify under Third Avenue Founder Marty Whitman’s “Safe and Cheap” maxim as both companies are nearly “net-cash” (i.e., more cash than debt) with common stocks trading at less than five times trailing earnings, on average.”
4. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Value of Soros Fund Management’s 13F Position: $224 million
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 272
Soros Fund Management trimmed its stake in Amazon.com, Inc. by 2% during the third quarter, owning over 1.98 million shares of the ecommerce giant at the end of Q3. Amazon has consistently ranked among the five most popular stocks among hedge funds over the last seven years. Several prominent money managers have billion-dollar stakes in AMZN, including Ken Fisher, Warren Buffett, and Ken Griffin.
Amazon.com, Inc. shares plunged by nearly 50% in 2022 but could be poised for a big bounce back in 2023 should the expected recession not prove as deep as anticipated. As noted in the first part of the article, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) have been losing some of their share of the digital ad market, with Amazon being one of the companies eating into it. AWS growth could also reaccelerate in a more positive business environment.
Perhaps most importantly, the profitability of Amazon’s core ecommerce business should improve in 2023 given moderating inflation, lower fuel costs, and the heavy lifting of bolstering its fulfillment network now behind it.
Farnam Street Investments quoted Amazon.com, Inc. CEO Jeff Bezos in its Q3 2022 investor letter:
“Change doesn’t just impact investors. Business people also bet for or against change. Jeff Bezos was once asked this exact question:
“You can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time. It’s impossible to imagine a future ten years from now where a customer comes up and says, ‘Jeff, I love Amazon, I just wish the prices were a little higher.’ Or, ‘I love Amazon, I just wish you’d deliver a little slower.’ Impossible. So we know the energy we put into these things today will still be paying off dividends ten years from now. When you have something you know is true, you can afford to put a lot of energy into it.”
A lot of energy… and more than $172 billion in capital expenditure in the last fifteen years.
Deeper, slower moving layers turn exponential growth into “S-curves.” A rapidly dividing bacteria crashes into the resource-wall of its Petri dish. Nineteenth-century commercial robber barons were smacked by the governance layer of the Sherman Antitrust act. Amazon Prime free shipping leaned on the creaking infrastructure of the U.S. Postal Service until it was forced to invest in its own infrastructure (all those delivery vans you see driving around).
Hopefully, next time you’re thinking about change, you can recall pace layers as a helpful construct to understand how successful systems change.
3. Duke Realty Corporation (NYSE:DRE)
Value of Soros Fund Management’s 13F Position: $308 million
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 26
Soros appears to be bullish on the long-term prospects of the housing market given his stakes in DHI and Duke Realty Corporation (NYSE:DRE), the latter of which he raised the size of by 2,332% during Q3, lifting it to 6.39 million shares. Hedge fund ownership of DRE has doubled over the last year, helped along by John Paulson’s Paulson & Co and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management each adding Duke Realty to their 13F portfolios during Q3.
Duke Realty Corporation was acquired by industrial-focused REIT Prologis, Inc. (NYSE:PLD) on October 3 in a deal valued at $23 billion. That was actually less than the $24 billion Prologis has initially offered for the company back in May, which at the time was deemed “insufficient”. The acquiring firm plans to retain about 94% of Duke’s assets, or about 142 million square feet of property, as well 1,200 acres of undeveloped land that Duke either owns or controls.
The Baron Real Estate Income Fund had also been buying more shares of Duke Realty Corporation recently in anticipation of the merger, as revealed in its Q2 2022 investor letter:
“Shares of Duke Realty Corporation, a $25 billion industrial REIT, declined only 7% in the second quarter, in large part because the company agreed to merge with Prologis at a 30% premium. We acquired additional shares in the company in the most recent quarter. We are optimistic about the prospects for the combined Prologis/Duke Realty entity. Prologis is merging with its largest REIT competitor in Duke Realty. Duke’s industrial portfolio is among the best in industrial real estate. The company has an excellent track record in development and construction. We believe the merger has strategic and financial merits including acquiring a high-quality portfolio in mostly similar or attractive real estate markets and the likelihood of realizing both additional revenue and cost savings. We will have more to say on Prologis/Duke Realty in future shareholder letters.
2. Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. (NYSE:BHVN)
Value of Soros Fund Management‘s 13F Position: $344 million
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 36
Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. (NYSE:BHVN) climbed into second place among George Soros’ largest holdings after the billionaire’s family office raised its stake in the company by 82% during Q3, giving it over 2.27 million shares of BHVN. Hedge fund ownership of the Biohaven shot up during Q2 but fell even harder during Q3, tumbling by 40%.
Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd.’s calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) portfolio was attractive to Pfizer given its potential to effectively treat migraine pain, which affects more than a billion people globally. Biohaven’s CGRP receptor antagonist NURTEC ODT is FDA approved for the treatment of both acute and episodic migraines in adults. The company also has an intranasal spray for migraines that is expected to receive FDA approval in the first quarter of 2023.
1. Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN)
Value of Soros Fund Management‘s 13F Position: $538 million
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 30
Rivian Automotive, Inc. remained George Soros’ top holding for the fourth straight quarter in Q3. Soros Fund Management sold off 9% of its stake in the company during Q3, leaving it with 16.4 million RIVN shares, which trailed only Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management among the select group of prominent hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey’s database.
Rivian Automotive, Inc. appears to be in a good position to scale up its production and meet the growing demand for its electric vehicles, including an order for 100,000 vehicles from Amazon and 114,000 preorders, the latter of which grew by 16,000 during Q3. The company believes it has enough cash to last it through 2025, which gives it plenty of time to build production and improve its profitability metrics. Rivian grew vehicle production by 67% quarter-over-quarter in Q3, rolling 7,363 vehicles off its lines.
Meridian Funds remains bullish on Rivian Automotive, Inc., but sold off its stake recently due to its less attractive relative valuation, as the fund discussed in its Q3 2022 investor letter:
“Rivian Automotive, Inc. manufactures electric vehicles (EVs) for the consumer and commercial markets. We initially invested in the company when it was privately owned. Among the many things that differentiate this startup is its substantial cash balance and relationship with Amazon, which is both an investor in the company and the first customer for Rivian’s commercial van. Several positive developments contributed to share strength in the quarter, including the company’s announcement that production of its R1 pickup trucks and EV delivery vans increased nearly 70% over the previous quarter. Management also reaffirmed its production target of 25,000 vehicles for 2022. Despite raising the price of its R1 truck earlier this year, Rivian continued to see strong demand for its vehicles, demonstrated by 98,000 pre-orders for its R1 truck and SUV. Although we are pleased with the company’s progress, we liquidated our position as Rivian approached the high end of our market cap threshold and its relative valuation became less attractive.”
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This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
