Were Hedge Funds Right Betting On These Stocks in Q4?

#2 Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

-Hedge Funds with Long Positions (as of September 30): 133

-Aggregate Value of Hedge Funds’ Holdings (as of September 30): $17.41 billion

After suffering a 11.6% decline during the third quarter, shares of the tech behemoth Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) again fell by 4.57% during the third quarter. Perhaps some of the hedge funds had already anticipated this dismal performance of the stock and that’s why the ownership of the company among funds covered by us declined during the third quarter.

Recently, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock went down below the psychologically-important $100 mark for the first time in 14 months and technical analysts believe that this could push the stock even lower in the near future. Fundamental analysts seem to agree with their technical counterparts, as, on January 11, several analysts lowered their price target on the stock. Among them were analysts at Deutsche Bank,  who reiterated their ‘Hold’ rating, while lowering their price target to $105 from $120.

Famous activist investor Carl Icahn – who is the largest shareholder of Apple with ownership of over 52 million shares – announced last October that he plans to launch a super PAC to reform corporate taxes in the US. Experts believe that if Mr. Icahn’s super PAC is able to achieve its plans, it will pave way for Apple to bring back billions of dollars stashed abroad without paying excessive tax and return it to shareholders.