5 High Yielding Stocks That Are George Soros Favorites

5 High Yielding Stocks That Are George Soros Favorites
George Soros' top dividend picks

by Meena Krishnamsetty and Javier Hasse
and by insidermonkey.com

George Soros is one of the best-known investors in the world.  His fund holds an equity portfolio worth more than $10 billion.  Among the fund's holdings, many pay dividends of more than 1% of their current trading prices.  In this article, we will look into five stocks among Soros' top picks that yield dividends of more than 3%.

American Capital Agency Corp. (AGNC) is an $8.26 billion market cap real estate investment trust that invests exclusively in residential mortgage pass-through securities and collateralized mortgage obligations on a leveraged basis, in which Soros holds a 1.517 million shares position, worth about $32 million. American Capital Agency pays out a dividend yield of 11.79% of the current stock price. On June 26, it paid out its most recent quarterly dividend: $0.65 per share.

In addition to Mr. Soros, other fund managers are profiting from American Capital Agency's dividend yield. David Einhorn 's Greenlight Capital holds 5.238 million shares of the company. This position, worth $112 million, was started over Q1, and has last paid Greenlight Capital more than $3.4 million in dividends.

Second in this list is Mack Cali Realty Corp (CLI), a $1.9 billion market cap self-administered, self-managed real estate investment trust that has George Soros as its largest hedge fund shareholder. Mr. Soros started a position in this company in the first quarter of 2014, and now holds 1.7 million shares, worth about $35 million. J. Alan Reid, Jr. 's Forward Management also owns 1.477 million shares of Mack Cali Realty Corp, while Chuck Royce holds 918,450 shares.

These and other hedge fund managers and investors have been cashing out a generous dividend yield from Mack Cali Realty Corp. The company has paid a dividend yield of 5.5% of the stock price in the past. However, the dividend was cut to half, and the upcoming payment of $0.15 will account for 2.75% (annualized value) of the current stock price. Despite the decrease, the dividend is still quite generous and could be once again boosted in the future, to meet its average historical yields, which have surpassed 5.44% since 2009.

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (CNP), an $11 billion market cap domestic energy delivery company, is another generous dividend payer. Its current yield stands at 3.51%, and is projected to come in at 3.75% (of the current stock price) around August.

Soros last declared having upped his stake in CenterPoint Energy by 829%, to 1.737 million shares, worth more than $41 million. He will receive more than $417,000 in dividend on the next payout date. Another fund that will largely profit from its holdings at CenterPoint Energy is Eric W. Mandelblatt 's Soroban Capital Partners. The fund owns 9.2 million shares of the company, worth more than $217 million.

Kraft Foods Group Inc (KRFT) is a company that has recently started paying dividends, and Soros holds 576,133 shares, worth over $32 million. Soros will receive more than $300,000 in dividends in July, as the yield stands at approximately 3.5%.

Other hedge funds betting on this $35.7 billion market cap consumer packaged foods and beverages company, like Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson 's Adage Capital Management and Ken Griffin 's Citadel Investment Group, which own about 2.56 million shares each, will further benefit from this dividend.

The last company in this list is AvalonBay Communities Inc (AVB), an $18.4 billion market cap REIT engaged in the development, redevelopment, acquisition, ownership and operation of multifamily communities located primarily in high barrier to entry markets of the U.S. Over the last reported quarter, Soros started a position with 257,988 shares of the company, worth roughly $34 million by the end of the quarter. In addition, Jeffrey and David E. Shaw declared slight increases in their stakes at AvalonBay Communities in Q1. They now own 1.51 million shares and 364,054 shares, respectively.

All of these funds stand to gain from AvalonBay Communities' 3.26% dividend yield. The $1.16 per share dividend will be paid on July 15, for stockholders of record as of June 30 2014.

Courtesy of MarketWatch