Recent Filings Show Billionaires Not Giving Up On Gold Yet

(Kitco News) -Even if gold saw its steepest one-day drop in nearly six weeks on Tuesday, big shot investors aren’t giving up on the metal just yet with billionaire John Paulson among them.

Recent government filings showed that New York-based Paulson & Co. held onto its 4.36 million shares of SDPR Gold, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, at the end of June, unchanged from the first quarter.

Gold prices were volatile in Q2, almost breaching the key $1,300 level twice during that three-month period. Recently, the metal got a safe-haven bid almost reaching that key resistance level again, but found itself unable to break through it for the third time this year. December Comex gold futures settled the day nearly 1% lower Tuesday at $1,279.70 an ounce.

Despite the volatility, Paulson kept onto his gold bets, which aside from GLD included some mining companies. Topping the list was Vancouver-based Novagold Resources, followed by South African miner AngloGold Ashanti and Toronto-based IAMGOLD. At the end of June, Paulson & Co held 22 million shares, 12.78 million shares and 3.86 million shares in each of these miners, respectively.

Paulson is not the only billionaire investor betting on bullion. Last week, Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio made the case for the yellow metal in a LinkedIn post, recommending investors allocate 5-10% of their portfolio in gold.

“Prospective risks are now rising and do not appear appropriately priced in,” he wrote.

“[I]f the above things go badly, it would seem that gold (more than other safe haven assets like the dollar, yen, and treasuries) would benefit.”

Based on a recent filing, Dalio’s hedge fund added over 577,000 shares of GLD to its portfolio.