Cliff Asness’s Cheap Stock Picks Include Apple Inc. (AAPL)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) was another of Asness’s cheap picks with the filing disclosing ownership of 4.4 million shares of the megabank. JPMorgan Chase is valued at 9 times earnings, whether we look at trailing or forward results, while other large banks are generally either highly dependent on improving their business in 2014 or carry a high price-to-book ratio (JPMorgan Chase’s is at right about 1). As a result we like the bank somewhat more than its peers. Billionaire David Shaw’s hedge fund D.E. Shaw owned 4.1 million shares as of the beginning of April (research Shaw’s stock picks).

The fund bought 2.9 million shares of large chemicals company LyondellBasell Industries NV (NYSE:LYB) between January and March. Earnings have been up at Lyondellbasell, despite somewhat lower sales numbers, and Wall Street analysts expect the trend on the bottom line to continue. With markets generally pricing chemicals companies cheaply, the trailing and forward earnings multiples are 12 and 9 respectively. We’d note that the stock features a beta of 2.5- it is highly dependent on the broader economy. Viking Global reported a position of over 13 million shares in its own 13F; that fund is managed by billionaire Andreas Halvorsen.

According to the filing AQR was selling some of its shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) but still closed Q1 with about 370,000 shares. With a number of other funds liking Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), it regained its place at the top of our list of the most popular stocks among hedge funds. Falling margins drove Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s net income down 18% in its most recent quarterly report compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year despite higher revenue. The stock is down 33% in the last year, which places the trailing P/E at 10, and that is with cash and cash equivalents making up a significant share of the market cap.

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.