MarketFolly.com reports that according to 13F filings, George Soros' Soros Fund Management made some notable changes to its portfolio. Among them, Soros completely exited from its positions in Conoco Phillips, Macy's, reduced each of its holdings in Petrobras and Potash by about two-thirds and increased positions in convertible bonds. Despite the large reduction in Petrobras, it still remains the fund's largest holding, and Potash remains a 4.4% holding.
Bloomberg reported -Ā Soros Fund Management LLC, sold 22 million U.S.-listed common shares of Petrobras, as the Brazilian oil company is known, according to a filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Soros bought 5.8 million of the companyās U.S.-traded preferred shares.
Soros is taking advantage of the spread between the two types of U.S.-listed Petrobras shares, said Luis Maizel, president of LM Capital Group LLC, which manages about $4 billion. The common shares were 21 percent more expensive than preferred today, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
āHe knows he held a voting right in the common shares that would never translate to actual power,ā Maizel said in an interview from San Francisco. āHeās just playing the spread.ā
Petrobras preferred shares have also a 10 percent additional dividend, said William Landers, a senior portfolio manager for Latin America at Blackrock Inc.
Re: Potash - Bloomberg reported
Soros cut his stake in Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., selling 4 million shares of the fertilizer producer while investing in Monsanto Co., the worldās largest seed producer.
Hedge Fund managers like Soros are worth watching because their directional votes (positions) often constitute stringently researched decisions, that are beyond the grasp and willingness of most investors.
(MarketFolly.com) Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of)
Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR): Reduced by 68.9%
Potash (POT): Reduced by 65.2%
Macrovision (MVSN) Bonds: Reduced by 48.8%
Walgreen (WAG): Reduced by 22.7%Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Conoco Phillips (COP), Macys (M), Union Pacific (UNP), American Electric Power (AEP), Donnelley (RRD), Smucker (SJM), Kohls (KSS), Occidental Petroleum (OXY) Puts, iShares Mexico (EWW) Puts, and Arch Coal (ACI).The rest of their sales were positions that were less than 0.25% of their portfolio each, including: Weyerhauser (WY), Coach (COH), Nabors (NBR), Public Service Enterprise (PEG), Crown Holdings (CCK), DPL (DPL), Emulex (ELX), PPL (PPL), Bluefly (BFLY), Frontier (FTO), Vishay (VSH), Northeast Utilities (NU), ICICI bank (IBN) Puts, Commercial Metals (CMC), Airgas (ARG), Formfactor (FORM), Vignette (VIGN), and Teradyne (TER).
It appears that while they reduced the position in Petrobras (PBR) they initiated a large position in Petrobras-A (PBR-A), and also added significantly to positions both new and existing in convertible bonds.
Bloomberg reported that Soros boosted his stake in oil company Hess Corp. to 5.1 million shares as of June 30 from 3.7 million at the end of the first quarter, according to the filing. Hess was Sorosās second- largest holding. He also added to stakes in Houston-based Plains Exploration & Production Co. and bought shares in Calgary-based Suncor Energy Inc. and InterOil Corp. in Sydney.
(MarketFolly.com) Some New Positions (Brand new positions that they initiated in the last quarter):
The major additions: Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR-A), Autozone (AZO), Goldman Sachs (GS) Puts, Interoil (IOC), Monsanto (MON), Vale (VALE) Puts, BPZ Resources (BPZ), and Suncor (SU).The rest of their new positions were less than 0.5% of their portfolio each: Verizon (VZ), Diodes (DIOD) Bonds, SPSS (SPSS) Bond, Sandridge Energy (SD), Exar (EXAR), Apache (APA) Calls, Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD), Lawson Software (LWSN) Bond, Blackboard (BBBB) Bond, Novagold (NG), CSX (CSX), Brigham Exploration (BEXP), Comcast (CMCSA), CA (CA), Constellation Energy (CEG), Focus Media (FMCN), Wabtec (WAB), Covanta (CVA) Calls, Ultrashort Financials (SKF), Berry Petroleum (BRY), Exco Resources (XCO), and Teradata (TDC) Calls.
Similar to Soros' Q1 2009 portfolio, their second quarter portfolio is heavily laden with convertible bonds. Seven out of their top 15 positions are in bonds, with LSI and Linear Technology their top picks in that regard. They boosed their Flextronics Bond position by 141%, their Tech Data Bond position by 77% and their LSI Bond position by around 20%. So, they were still liking those names over the course of the past quarter.
Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
Allied Nevada Gold (ANV): Increased by 4,242% (was previously 0.01% of their portfolio and is now boosted up to only 0.45% of their portfolio)
Covanta (CVA): Increased by 1,185.5% (was previously a 0.11% position for them and is now 1.89% of their portfolio)
AT&T (T): Increased by 691% (boosted from 0.05% of their portfolio up to 0.47% of their portfolio now)
Allegheny Energy (AYE): Increased by 259% (from 0.13% of their portfolio up to 0.55% of their portfolio)
Flextronics (FLEX) Bond: Increased by 141%
Plains Exploration (PXP): Increased by 81.8%
Tech Data (TECD) Bond: Increased by 77%
Hess (HES): Increased by 40%
RF Micro (RFMD) Bonds: Increased by 37.9%
LSI (LSI) Bonds: Increased by 19.4%
Here is the latest list of Soros Fund Management Holdings:
Top 15 Holdings by percentage of long portfolio *(see note below regarding calculations)
- Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR): 9.58% of portfolio
- Hess (HES): 6.56% of portfolio
- LSI Corp (LSI) Bond: 5.85% of portfolio
- Linear Technology (LLTC) Bond: 5.2% of portfolio
- Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR-A): 4.68% of portfolio
- RF Micro Devices (RFMD) Bond: 4.42% of portfolio
- Potash (POT): 4.4% of portfolio
- Plains Exploration (PXP): 4.25% of portfolio
- Tech Data (TECD) Bond: 3.96% of portfolio
- RF Micro (RFMD) Bond 2nd set: 3.7% of portfolio
- Flextronics (FLEX) 1%10 Bond: 3.2% of portfolio
- Covanta (CVA): 1.9% of portfolio
- Autozone (AZO): 1.9% of portfolio
- Audiocodes (AUDC) 2% 24 Bond: 1.6% of portfolio
- Entergy (ETR): 1.6% of portfolio
