George Soros Bets Against Tech, Cuts Apple Stake
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Legendary investor George Soros cut some of his technology bets in the first quarter, including his positions in Apple (AAPL), Baidu (BIDU), and Yahoo! (YHOO), and went so far as to add a huge position against the sector.
Soros, 81, cut his stake in Apple during the first quarter, selling more than half of his holdings to reduce his position to 40,000 shares, per his latest filing with Securities and Exchange Commission.
As of the end of 2011, Soros held 95,000 shares in the Cupertino, Calif.-based technology giant.
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| George Soros |
Apple shares gained 48.04% during the first quarter.
Despite cutting his stake in Apple, Soros added a new stake in Apple supplier Qualcomm (QCOM). He had 125,000 shares of the San Diego-based chipmaker as of March 31, along with a call position worth another 56,000 shares. Qualcomm shares gained 24.42% in the first quarter. Perhaps almost as notable as his stake reduction in Apple is the large bet against technology. Soros had a put position in PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQ) worth almost $294.86 million. A put is a directional bet against the ETF. The Hungarian-American investor and philanthropist also sharply decreased his position in Chinese technology high-flyer Baidu, showing a position of 37,000 shares as of the end of the quarter. He had 118,500 shares of Baidu as of the end of 2011. Baidu shares gained 25.16% during the quarter. Soros also lowered his stake in Yahoo! during the quarter, but still held onto 710,000 shares. Shares of the Yahoo! fell 5.63% during the first quarter. View the rest of George Soros portfolio. Interested in more on Apple? See TheStreet Ratings' report card for this stock. Check out our new tech blog, Tech Trends. Follow TheStreet Tech on your wireless devices. --Written by Chris Ciaccia in New York >Contact by Email. Follow @Commodity_BullSelect the service that is right for you!
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