Even as shares of Tesla Inc. sank last year, billionaire investor George Soros appeared to find something to like in the electric-vehicle maker — and some other beaten-down names — as the year came to a close.
His Soros Fund Management scooped up 242,399 shares of Tesla TSLA,
The move came as more analysts have grown frustrated with Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, following his purchase of Twitter in October. Many on Wall Street viewed that acquisition as a distraction from running Tesla, which faces major questions about competition.
But Tesla, and Musk, loomed over Soros’ moves in other ways. During the quarter, the fund also bought 500,000 shares of Cathie Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF ARKK,
However, as Musk prepared to take the reins at Twitter, the filing shows that Soros cashed out his position in the social-media platform during the fourth quarter. Over that time, he also unloaded his position in pandemic-era staple Zoom Video Communications Inc. ZM,
Elsewhere, Soros loaded up on other embattled companies.
The fund acquired more than 83 million shares in fitness-bike maker Peloton Interactive Inc. PTON,
Soros also took more of an interest in crypto plays, after risk-averse investors backed away from the sector. The fund took a new stake of nearly 40 million shares in Marathon Digital Holdings MARA,
The filing also showed new stakes in big financial names Capital One Financial Corp. COF,
The fund also fattened its stake in online craft marketplace Etsy Inc. ETSY,
The fund also bought millions of shares for a new stake in cloud-software provider Fastly FSLY,