Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA), Apple Inc. (AAPL): Which Stock Do Investors Like Best?

Investors however are not affected much by short-term movements of a particular company and are more looking towards the long-term performance of a company. That’s why it is interesting to see their actions that can be observed from the last round of 13F filings. In this way, we see that Dan Loeb of Third Point, who sold his entire stake in Apple during the first quarter of 2014 (the shares had been acquired a quarter earlier), has further increased his exposure to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) and is currently the largest shareholder among funds that we track, holding 10.0 million shares, valued at $1.04 billion. On the other hand, George Soros kept his stake in Alibaba unchanged, the company currently representing his largest holding, but he also sold the rest of his stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). David E. Shaw cut his positions in both Apple and Alibaba. D.E. Shaw & Co sold 6.37 million shares of Apple and 3.97 million shares of Alibaba, retaining 5.28 million shares and 80,000 shares respectively. Viking Global also significantly cut its stake in Alibaba by 62% to 3.71 million shares.

We shall see how investors will be repaid in the following months. So far things look good as Apple’s stock gained around 16.40% year-to-date. As it was mentioned the company provided strong financial results and a solid cash position, a big part of which is going to be returned to shareholders in buybacks and dividends. Apple is also going to release its Watch in April and Apple Pay will certainly have an impact on its financial figures as well. Alibaba is also planning some big developments such as the IPO of its financial wing in the next couple of years. However, with Yahoo’s plans to spin-off its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), there is a small fear among analysts that this will reduce the liquidity of Alibaba’s shares.

Disclosure: None