Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was cut down by its largest shareholder, Fidelity Investments, in the first two months of 2013. Fidelity Contrafund owned 11.56 million shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by the end of 4Q2012 which was reduced to 10.43 million shares, according to Reuters.
Will Danoff, portfolio manager of Fidelity Contrafund, was paring the position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the fourth quarter as well, the latest update from the fund shows that Apple’s largest active shareholder has continued trimming it into the new year as well.
As is the case whenever Apple is dethroned, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) steps up; the search engine giant now holds the spot fr Fidelity’s largest long holding in its $92 billion fund. Its stake in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) makes up 5.8 percent of the fund’s total assets which is equal to $5.1 billion, while Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) takes the second place with 5.2 percent of the assets, worth $4.6 billion.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) also trumped Apple as being the second most popular stock among hedge fund holdings in Q4, displacing Apple to third spot. Investors in Apple have been disappointed by the company’s inability to hike dividend despite of its huge cash hoard that is expected to hit $170 billion.
Apple’s reserve cash has been the target of much debate and led to David Einhorn’s controversial lawsuit against the company. The active selling in Apple’s shares by hedge funds has been cited as one reason for the consistent decline in stock price since November of last year.
Several hedge funds and asset managers have cut their positions in Apple in Q4 of last year. In fact the only notable fund managers who increased their positions in Apple were David Einhorn and David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management. Dan Loeb’s Third Point no longer holds Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its top five positions as it did in Q3. Apple has been trading down since the news broke about Fidelity’s reduced stake in the company, down 2 percent at the time of this writing.
