Thursday, May 19, 2011

Soros Builds on Petrobras Holdings in First Quarter

But, but we were told Soros sold Petrobras!

Billionaire investment manager George Soros built on his position in Brazilian oil and gas company Petrobras in the first quarter of 2011 for his Soros Fund Management firm, according to the guru watchers over at Guru Focus.com on May 17. He now owns 1.1 million shares of Brazil’s state owned oil company.

Soros sold out of Petrobras in mid-2010 only to return to the market in the fourth quarter of 2010 with the purchase of roughly 588,000 shares. The stock has been a money loser for Soros since getting back into the market, according to his average share price calculated by Guru Focus. Petrobras closed May 17 at $34.27 per share, so Soros’s big purchases in one of Brazil’s top two most actively traded stocks was unaffected by his large purchase orders.

Petrobras shares remain under fire since the 2010 share dilution, when the government run entity sold millions of new shares and increased its stake in the Brazil’s biggest offshore driller. Since then, the share prices have faced a steep correction in relation to other big oil companies and has not kept up with rising oil prices.

Petrobras shares are down 9.4% year-to-date ending May 17 and down 7.5% over the last 12 months.

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