Why Apple Inc. (AAPL) Couldn’t Save Cascabel Management From Underperformance, Closure

Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) continued to be the second top pick of Cascabel at the end of the first quarter, even though the fund reduced its exposure by 40% to 6,000 Class A shares of the company which were valued at $3.3 million as of March 31. Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) has been underperforming the broader market for nearly two years and its shares have remained flat in the last few quarters. However, the real reason for a lot of  investors to be frustrated with Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is that the company currently sits on reserves of over $66 billion, but hasn’t shown any signs of declaring a dividend or going for a major acquisition. Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global is significantly bullish on the stock nonetheless, as it increased its stake in Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) by 121% in the first quarter to over 1.6 million shares.

Cascabel reduce its stake in its former top holding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 50% during the first quarter to 25,000 shares valued at $3.11 million, making the stock its third top pick. Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) spiked by more than 15% in the first quarter, hence Cascabel’s move can potentially be seen as profit booking, though it may in hindsight have wished to hang on to the stock longer. Even though Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock has more than tripled in the last five years, investors, including prominent ones like Carl Icahn continue to be bullish on the stock. Icahn recently published an open letter to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO, Tim Cook, in which he argued that shares of the company are undervalued, stating that their fair value is $240. Among the hedge funds we track, Icahn’s Icahn Capital LP has the largest position, consisting of 52.76 million shares valued at over $6.5 billion as of March 31.

 Disclosure: None