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 Net Worth and Top 10 Holdings Heading into 2023
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
Value of Soros Fund Management’s 13F Position: $96.9 million
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 359
D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI), Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN), and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) 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. (NASDAQ:GOOG) 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. (NASDAQ:GOOG) 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.”
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. (NYSE:CRM) is one of Jim Cramer's 5 Comeback Stocksafter 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. (NYSE:CRM) 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. (NYSE:CRM) 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.”
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 (NASDAQ:LBRDA) 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 (NASDAQ:LBRDA)’s Charter investment in its Q3 2022 investor letter:
“We believe this to be the case for Liberty Broadband Corporation (NASDAQ:LBRDA) (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.
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. (NYSE:BOWL) 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. (NYSE:BOWL)’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.
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 (NYSE:ARMK), 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 (NYSE:ARMK) 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. (NASDAQ:AMZN), D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI), and Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN) are all in George Soros’ top five holdings entering 2023, see where they rank by clicking the link below.
