13F season is upon us, and in the recent SEC filings, top hedge funds showed that they are scaling back their Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) positions.
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Top funds cutting their stakes:
Adage Capital cut its stake 4 percent in the third quarter, currently holding 8.5 million Apple shares.
Coatue Management trimmed its Apple stake by 20percent in holdings, now owning 6.8 million shares.
Appaloosa Management went from holding 2.5 million Apple shares to just 1.3 million — a nearly 50% reduction.
Bridgewater Associates took its Apple holdings down to 274,852 shares — slashing its position in half.
Nevsky Capital reported owning 2.5 million Apple shares in the second quarter and now owns just 908,156 shares.
Tiger Eye Capital blew out of its entire position — which was 356,502 shares in the second quarter.
There’s the possibility that a fair amount of these hedge funds were scaling down because of the feat that iPhone sales show robust growth in the third or fourth quarters of 2015 like it has in previous years.
Due to the fact that Apple shares decreased 12 percent in the third quarter, closing at $110.30 on September 30th, also down from the yearly high in April of $134.54.
Of note — the hedge funds that were scaling back their Apple holdings in the third quarter may have saved themselves some losses if they sold sometime before Jul. 20, when the stock was at its highest in the third quarter, at$132.07. All in all, Apple fell 12% in the third quarter and ended Sept. 30 at $110.30.
Steady she goes — During the third quarter there were still a select few who didn’t change their stake in Apple at all. Activist investor Carl Icahn’s 52.8 million shares remained unchanged, as did Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management, which still held 7.6 million Apple shares.
There is one contrarian — as other funds were selling off Apple shares, an unlikely hedge fund, Greenlight Capital upped is stake during the third quarter. Now owning 11.2 million Apple shares, an over 50% increase from its 7.2 million share stake in the second quarter. David Einhorn is buying more shares after first investing in Apple during 2010 and as he’s taking a beating on other stocks like CONSOL Energy (NYSE: CNX) and SunEdison (NASDAQ: SUNE). Einhorn took Apple to task in early 2010 after a dispute over how Apple was managing its vast cash hoard.
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