Apple Inc. (AAPL) Dethroned by Actavis plc (ACT) as Hedge Funds’ Top Stock Pick

Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) lost some ground, sliding to the fourth spot from the second as the number of investors that disclosed holding shares fell to 126 from 137 during the first three months of the year. The aggregate value of the stakes held by the funds that we track inched up to $11.63 billion from $11.27 billion, while the stock declined by 4.7% during the first quarter. Even thought Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C)’s first-quarter earnings beat the expectations (mainly on the back of reduced legal expenses), the bank has been involved in a series of probes, the last of which involves allegations of manipulating the foreign exchange rates in currency markets; charged on which it may plead guilty. However, at the same time, Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) has passed the Fed’s stress test with the cleanest score, which allows it to buy back around $7.8 billion worth of stock during the next five quarters. Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management and Harris Associates are among the top shareholders of Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), holding 26.35 million shares and 24.49 million shares respectively, as of the end of March.

Tech giant Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) also made the list, scoring two positions in the top ten, with both its Class A and Class C stocks. As 121 funds reported holding around $7.36 billion worth of class A stock and 108 investors disclosed long positions worth $6.88 billion of class C stock, Google gained some popularity among investors during the period. In comparison to the previous companies mentioned in this list, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s last results missed the estimates, but investors are still upbeat about the prospects after expecting much worse results. In addition, Google is currently facing antitrust charges in Europe, which affected its stock, which currently trades up by around 1.80% year-to-date. Harris Associates raised its holdings of both Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s Class A and Class C shares to 2.20 million shares and 754,900 shares respectively. Billionaire Andreas Halvorsen of Viking Global is also bullish on the company, as his fund more than doubled its stake in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Class A stock to 1.64 million shares and initiated a position in its Class C stock with 841,200 shares purchased.

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