Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor, holds 3.88 million shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) worth $2.05 billion, according to his recent 13F filing. Icahn has been pushing Apple for quite some time now to buy back shares worth $150 billion.
Icahn plans on increasing his stake
Icahn’s holdings, which are showed in the filing, are a part of his drive to make Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) spend more of its cash to return value to shareholders. In a letter to chief executive Tim Cook last month, Icahn asked the CEO to increase the stock repurchase.
In his letter, Icahn mentioned that he has created stock holdings of 4.7 million Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares, but the number was not reflected in the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as it was of September 30th. Also, he is looking forward to buying more shares, which he feels are undervalued.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stated that it planned to deploy $100 billion in dividends and buybacks, but Icahn is looking for more.
Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Apple, declined to comment on the filing, says Bloomberg.
Icahn increased stake in Nuance
Additionally, Icahn has increased his stake in Nuance Communications by 20.9 million shares as of September 30. His total stake in the developer of speech recognition software stands at 52.4 million, worth $839 million.
Last week, Nuance appointed two directors from Icahn’s firm in a bid to end the fight for control over the board of the company. In return, Icahn’s agreed to a standstill provision, under which it cannot make a hostile takeover as it can acquire only 20% of the voting stake in Nuance.
Other hedge funds turn harsh on Apple
Some of the other popular hedge funds ignored Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), in the third quarter, and settled for Pandora Media. Coatue and Viking Global trimmed their holdings in Apple along with a host of other well-known managers who followed a similar strategy.
Other hedge funds that reduced or completely divested their investment in the iPhone maker include Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors, David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management, Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital and Manish Chopra’s Tiger Veda Management
Hedge funds including Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management and Patrick McCormack’s Tiger Consumer Management purchased 1.1 million and 2.9 million shares of Pandora respectively, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.
