Tepper’s Appaloosa Cut Apple Stake by 41% as Shares Fell
By Saijel Kishan - May 15, 2013 12:38 PM ET
Appaloosa Management LP, the hedge-fund manager run by billionaire David Tepper, cut its stake in Apple Inc (AAPL). by 41 percent last quarter as the computer maker slumped while stock markets rallied.
Appaloosa held 540,000 shares of the Cupertino, California-based technology company at the end of March, valued at $239 million, down from 912,661 shares at the end of last year, according to a regulatory filing today. Apple extended losses after the filing, declining the most in three weeks.
Tepper, who had been investing in the stock since the end of 2010, pared his stake as Apple declined 17 percent in the first three months of the year, even as U.S. stocks added 10 percent. Tepper said in an interview with CNBC yesterday that he sold Apple shares because the maker of the iPhone and iPad devices hasn’t been “evolutionary” or “revolutionary” recently.
Apple fell as much as 3.3 percent, the biggest intraday loss since April 24, and traded 2.9 percent lower at $431.23 by 12:15 p.m. in New York. The stock has lost 39 percent from a record high in September amid concerns about slowing profit and sales, narrowing margins and intensifying mobile competition.
Appaloosa, which manages $17.9 billion, trimmed its stake in Citigroup Inc., its biggest U.S.-listed stock holding, by 675,000 shares to 8.52 million shares, valued at $376.9 million at the end of the first quarter, according to the filing.
The hedge-fund firm also reduced its holding in JPMorgan Chase & Co. by 1.3 million shares in the quarter, leaving it with 1 million shares, and cut its stake in American International Group Inc.
To contact the reporter on this story: Saijel Kishan in New York at skishan@bloomberg.net
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