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The large hedge funds of Paulson and Soros sold part of their investments in gold mines in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the report Reuters. Soros Fund Management reduced its stake in Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF by 27% in the last quarter of last year compared to the third quarter of 2014. His fund also sold all 483,570 shares in Barrick Gold Corp, a position that was valued at about $7.1 million at the time.
Hedge fund manager Paulson also thought the fourth quarter of last year was a good time to reduce exposure to the gold mining sector. During this period, he reduced his position in Gold Fields by 40% to 3.95 million shares with a total value of $17.9 million. Paulson also sold 40% of his shares in Sibanye Gold. He has 986,853 shares of this company left with a market value of $7.5 million.
Paulson not only has a position in gold mines, but also in physical gold through the SPDR Gold Trust. The hedge fund manager – who is known to be positive on gold – has had a fixed position in this fund of more than 10.2 million shares for five quarters in a row. These stocks had a total value of $1.16 billion in the fourth quarter. In the previous quarter, this position was worth $1.19 billion due to a slightly higher Gold price.
In the fourth quarter, the prices of gold mining stocks fell to the lowest level in more than a decade. Due to the low gold price, investors saw a large part of their potential profit margin evaporate. Many investors, including Soros and Paulson, thought it wise to sell some of their gold mines in the last quarter of last year.
The transactions of these large hedge funds are periodically made public by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and give investors insight into what the professional asset managers do with their assets. It also provides insight into the sentiment among large asset managers towards gold and gold mining stocks.
John Paulson sold gold mining stocks late last year, but holds on to position in gold ETF
