Apple Investment Strategies: As Icahn Sells, Buffett And Einhorn Load Up

Plenty of investors follow the smart money during 13-F filing season. If the managers running billion-dollar hedge funds are all buying or selling the same stock, it may serve as a strong indication that retail investors should be doing the same.

However, sometimes the smart money doesn’t necessarily all flow in the same direction.

The latest 13-F filings have revealed several of the biggest names on Wall Street still don’t seem to see eye-to-eye on the world’s largest company.

Apple

In April of 2016, Icahn Enterprises LP IEP chairman Carl Icahn revealed he sold out of his massive 46 million share stake in Apple Inc. AAPL. At the time, Icahn said he was concerned about Apple’s inability to deliver sales growth and its challenging prospects in China.

Related Link: 13F Roundup: Apple, Bank of America And Other Stocks Hedge Funds Love/Hate

However, several other Wall Street giants apparently saw Apple in a quite different light. The exact same quarter Icahn sold his stake in Apple, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)’s Warren Buffett and Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn and were both buying shares.

“We believe there is tremendous value in Apple’s brand and growing global customer base that periodically buys new devices and increasingly buys additional services,” Einhorn said at the time.

This time, at least, Buffett and Einhorn picked the right side of the trade. Apple shares are up 23 percent since the beginning of April 2016, outpacing the S&P 500 by about 10 percent.

Berkshire Hathaway and Greenlight Capital finished 2016 up 24.6 and 8.4 percent, respectively. Icahn Enterprises finished the year down 6.0 percent.

New Stakes

In the most recent quarter, both Buffett and Einhorn upped their stakes in Apple.

Berkshire upped its stake from 15.2 million shares to 574. million shares in Q4. Greenlight added 613,300 shares, bringing its total stake up to more tan 5.8 million shares.