What You Need To Know About Hedge Funds & Apple In Q1

Shares of Apple Inc. AAPL gained 3.71 percent on Monday trading, after most institutional investors disclosed their long equity positions for the first quarter. Once again, the tech behemoth was among the most popular stocks among money managers. Below is a look into some of the most relevant moves and positions seen in Apple in the January to March period.

A few moves in Apple were widely discussed by the media on Monday. Stealing the thunder was Berkshire Hathaway’s new stake in the iPhone maker. The fund managed by Warren Buffett last disclosed ownership of 9,811,747 shares of Apple, valued at more than $1.06 billion by the end of the first three months of the year. Another popular move was that of Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors, which also started a new stake, comprising 227,000 shares, worth about $24.7 million by the end of the first quarter of 2016.

Other bullish moves seen in Apple during the first quarter included:

• Capital World Investors’ 265 percent exposure increase, to 32,950,500 shares, or more than $3.5 billion in stock.
• The 31 percent boost in David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital’s stake, to 8,213,040 shares.
• Soroban Capital Partners’ new 3,260,700 shares position; the fund managed by Eric W. Mandelblatt also acquired 15,480,000 call options (worth more than $1.68 billion) over the quarter.

On the other hand, several major hedge funds closed out their stakes in Apple over the first quarter. Among them were:

• Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management, which sold all of its 6,812,489 shares
• Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, which disposed of its 4,463,233 shares
• David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management, which got rid of its 1,264,000 shares
• Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management, which dumped its 409,310 shares

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.