Apple Is Still Hedge Funds’ Biggest Stock

Apple is by far the most widely held stock among hedge fund managers.

At least 113 hedge funds counted it among their top ten holdings at the end of the second quarter, according to a recent Goldman Sachs analysis based on a universe of 699 hedge funds with $1.2 trillion of gross assets at the start of the third quarter.

This comes as no surprise. It has been the top holding among hedge funds for a number of quarters as the maker of the iPhone and iPad became one of the best investments of the past decade.

A number of funds count Apple as its largest holding at the end of the second quarter, including Coatue Management, D.E. Shaw, Greenlight Capital, Lone Pine Capital and Tiger Global.

Of course, since the reported holdings are based on a snapshot of a fund’s portfolio on June 30, there is no way of knowing whether any of the funds that held Apple shares on that day bought the stock in the waning days of the quarter to show clients that yes, they too made a wise investment in one of the best trades of the decade.

In any case, Goldman found that the typical hedge fund has an average of 64 percent of long equity assets in its ten largest positions. This compares with just 36 percent for a typical large-cap mutual fund and 21 percent for S&P 500.

The following are the 13 stocks that were found most often among the top ten holdings of hedge funds.