What To Expect From This 13F Season (And Which Hedge Funds To Watch) - Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Institutional investment firms with more than $100 million in assets under management and relevant long stakes in U.S. listed equities are required to disclose their long positions with the SEC once per quarter via 13F filings. Filings for the first quarter of 2016 are due this Friday and, while some funds have already disclosed their Q1 long stakes, others are waiting until the absolute last minute to do so. Ahead of their filings, Benzinga will share a look into the last fully reported quarter’s most relevant moves, into what to look for in the first quarter’s 13Fs, and into some of the trends appearing in the first quarter.

Most Popular Stocks In Q4

As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2015, the most popular stock among institutional investors was –surprise- Apple Inc. AAPL. According to WhaleWisdom data, more than 2,200 firms held long stakes in the tech behemoth, which saw 169 new positions, 1,042 increased wages and 909 trimmed stakes over the October to December period.

Among the institutions with the largest stakes, investors could count Carl Icahn, who disclosed ownership of 45,760,848 shares, worth more than $4.8 billion, and JP Morgan Chase & Co., with 61,629,683 shares. Another stake to highlight is that of Tiger Global Management, which started a new position in the company comprising 10,600,000 shares between October and December.

As most investors know, Icahn recently declared that his firm no longer holds a position in Apple, after the company reported disappointing second-quarter results, missing estimates on both the top and bottom lines.

While Apple was the most popular stock among all kinds of institutional investors, it was not the best-liked among hedge funds. As per InsiderMonkey data, Allergan plc Ordinary Shares AGN was the mot popular among hedge funds, counting 159 supporters among the funds the site tracks. The aggregate value of their holdings reached $22.22 billion as of December 31. Andreas Halvorsen‘s Viking Global Management held 5,978,075 shares of the company, standing as one of the largest shareholders of record. Among the funds that have disclosed long positions in Allergan as of March 31 (the end of the first quarter) was Donald Chiboucis’ Columbus Circle Investors, which last declared ownership of 413,913 shares of the company, or roughly $110 million in stock.

Other very popular stocks among institutional investors by the end of the fourth quarter were Microsoft Corporation MSFT and Johnson & Johnson JNJ, which counted on more than 2,100 and 2,000 supporters, respectively.

Alphabet Inc GOOGL GOOG and Facebook Inc FB completed the list of most popular stocks among hedge funds, InsiderMonkey assured. As of December 31, 154 funds held long positions in Alphabet’s Class A (GOOGL) stock, 142 were long Alphabet’s Class C (GOOG) stock, and 146 disclosed long-term exposure to Facebook.

Some Early Trends For Q1

As stated above, some firms have already filed their first quarter 13Fs, even though they were not due yet. Among them we can count Harris Associates, Yacktman Asset Management and Fisher Asset Management. So, let’s take a look into some interesting moves of the first quarter.

Allergan saw several large funds trim their exposure over the first quarter, as the stock lost 14.23 percent. As mentioned overhead, Columbus Circle Investors disclosed ownership of 413,913 shares of the company as of March 31; this means that, over the first quarter, the firm cut its stake by 16 percent.

Jean-Marie Eveillard’sFirst Eagle Investment Management declared an ever larger reduction in its stake, which was cut by 45 percent over the period to 371,770.

On the other hand TD Asset Management started a new position, comprising 920,031 shares, over the quarter.

Harris Associates’ top pick remained General Motors Company GM, even though it cut its exposure by 3 percent, to 78,563,924 million shares. Also bullish, but reducing its stake in the automaker was Bank of New York Mellon Corp., which trimmed its position by 1 percent, to13,511,978 shares.

Harris’ largest new position was the one started at Baxter International Inc BAX, which comprised 5,106,845 shares, or more than $209 million in stock. On the other hand, the largest closed out stake was that at General Mills, Inc. GIS; the firm held 4,165,823 shares of the company by the end of the fourth quarter.

For its part, Yacktman continued to be bullish on Procter & Gamble Co PG, which was, same as in the previous quarter, its top pick, even though it trimmed its stake by 11 percent over the period. As of March 31, the firm held 19,444,922 shares of the company, valued at more than $1.6 billion. While no new positions were opened over the first quarter of 2016, 10 stakes were boosted. A noteworthy move was the one seen at Twenty-First Century Fox Inc FOXA; the fund increased its exposure by 4 percent over the first quarter, to 40,353,546 shares or $1.12 billion in stock.

Finally, Ken Fisher’s fund seemed particularly bullish on the iShares IBoxx $ Invest Grade Corp Bd Fd LQD, as it increased its exposure by 4 percent to 13,174,823 shares over the quarter, turning it its most valuable position.

A Look Back At Q4

In an article published after the Q4 13F season, Benzinga shared a look into the most popular stocks among Tiger Cubs -- former Tiger Management employees. The best-liked stock (measured as the stock held by most of them, according to WhaleWisdom) was Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, with 12.5 percent of the 24 firms included in this group holding its stock. For instance, Lone Pine Capital declared holding 2,207,252 shares of the company, worth almost $1.5 billion; Tiger Global Management held 3,193,590 shares; and Viking Global Investors, 2,567,446 shares.

Another popular stock among Tiger Cubs was JD.Com Inc(ADR) JD, which saw Tiger Global boost its stake by 3 percent to 59,615,495 shares over the fourth quarter, and Coatue Management increase its exposure by 18 percent to 19,533,781 shares.

Other popular stocks among major hedge funds and institutional investors were:

Pfizer Inc. PFE

• Appaloosa opened a position comprising 2,412,250 shares, worth more than $77.8 million.

• Corvex acquired 12,100,098 shares, disclosing ownership of 12,414,348 shares by December 31.

• Jana Partners started a new wage including 9,168,818 shares, worth more than $295 million.

• Paulson & Company initiated a new position with 632,700 shares.

Macy's, Inc. M

• Greenlight Capital started a new position comprising 6,739,600 shares, worth more than $235 million as of December 31.

• Marcato Capital Management initiated a stake including 2,234,491 shares.

• Starboard Value LP added 48,160 shares to its holdings, taking them to 3,309,810, or about 1.05 percent of the company’s total outstanding stock.

Some Hedge Funds To Watch On Friday

Below is a list of relevant hedge funds and investment firms to watch on Friday:

Bain Capital Investors, one of the firms that has consistently beat the market
Baker Bros. Advisors, the best performing fund according to WhaleWisdom data
Peter Franklin Palmedo’s Sun Valley Gold, the best performing fund according to InsiderMonkey data
Berkshire Hathaway, because well… it’s Warren Buffet!
Soros Fund Management, another fund that needs no introduction
Renaissance Technologies, because Jim Simons’ formula is something to keep track of
Icahn Capital, because corporate raiders should never be ignored
BP Capital, because it is managed by T Boone Pickens
Greenlight Capital, because David Einhorn’s picks have been awesome over the years
Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, because you cannot ignore an equty portfolio worth more than $90 billion
Israel Englander’s Millennium Management
Dan Loeb’s Third Point
Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square
John Paulson’s Paulson & Co
David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management LP
Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management

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

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