3 Big Sells and 3 Big Buys by George Soros
May. 23, 2011 5:02 PM ET  |  Includes: AGRO, CVS, DAL, GLD, MSI, PXP, VC
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

Additional disclosure: I am short Gold Futures.
George Soros, the man who broke the bank of England in early 90s, is among the most famous hedge fund managers in the world. Soros Fund Management, founded in 1969 by George Soros, is run by Soros and his sons. According to the latest 13F filings from Edgar Online, the fund has $5.2 billion of assets invested in equities. Share of technology stocks in portfolio is 21.23%, followed by services [19.85%], and healthcare [14.11%]. Here, is a brief analysis of Soros’s three latest big sells and four big buys.

Big Sells

SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEARCA:GLD): There has been a gold-mania going on in this century. Gold became highly-overpriced as I mentioned here, and here. SPDR’s largest shareholders have already started to sell their stocks. Soros reduced his gold holdings by -98.95%. It is expected that the extreme volatility will lead more people to sell their gold stocks. Although the worries on Euro and Dollar gave a boost to gold and silver for a short time, sooner or later this trend will weaken. It is quite hard to connect inflation with gold prices. As Professor Menzie Chinn suggests in econbrowser blog, reality of inflation is much different than the common speculations. I expect the inflation to be at most 5% at the worst scenario which is insufficient to explain the 166% increase since 2006. The rule is simple. What goes up must come down. Similar to the pop of techno-bubble, sooner or later the gold bubble will burst. Soros made his profit, and sold out at peak.

Plains Exploration & Production Company (NYSE:PXP) acquires, explores, develops, and produces oil and gas primarily in the U.S. The company is favored by Goldman Sachs, as well as Dahlman Rose, and UBS. PXP’s market capital is $4.85 billion, and P/E is 42.48. Forward P/E is 11.95, and analysts estimate a 36.49% EPS growth next year. Gross margin is 70.78%, while the profit margin is 23.43%.