Insider Monkey tracks more than 300 hedge funds and a few mutual funds with very respectable track records like Bruce Berkowitz’s Fairholme. We finished compiling hedge fund holdings and will post them on our free website shortly. We will be providing some summary tables to help you understand what hedge funds are thinking about individual stocks. The first interesting thing we wanted to do is determine the most popular stocks among hedge funds. This analysis is based on the hedge funds’ long stock and call options positions. Here are the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds:
1. Apple (AAPL): Apple was the third most popular stock among hedge fund managers at the end of first quarter. Now it holds the first spot with a comfortable margin. There were 103 hedge funds with Apple positions at the end of second quarter. They have invested a total of $11.4 Billion in the stock. Ken Griffin had $1 Billion in Apple calls and $211 Million in Apple stock, balanced by a $1 Billion put position. Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital had more than $700 Million in AAPL at the end of June and didn’t protect itself against the downside by buying put options.
2. Microsoft (MSFT): Microsoft was the second most popular stock at the end March and it remains that way at the end of June. There were 91 hedge funds in MSFT, investing a total of $6.2 Billion. Last May David Einhorn made the case why MSFT is a good stock pick in his Ira Sohn Conference presentation (read the transcript of Einhorn’s speech). Einhorn boosted his stake in MSFT by 63% during the second quarter. Conservative investor Seth Klarman also joined the ranks of hedge funds with large MSFT positions, betting more than $300 Million.
3. Citigroup (C): Citigroup was the most popular stock among hedge funds at the end of March. Unfortunately several hedge funds dumped their positions in the stock but C still ranks third. Hedge funds still invested more in C than AAPL. This is mainly due to the large positions by John Paulson and Bruce Berkowitz. During the second quarter Bill Ackman also added to his already large bets and brought his total position in the company to $979 Million at the end of June. The stock lost 37% since then.
4. JP Morgan (JPM): There were 85 hedge funds with a total of $6.6 Billion in JPM at the end of June.
5. Google (GOOG): There were 83 hedge funds with a total of $5.6 Billion in GOOG at the end of June.
6. Bank of America (BAC): There were 77 hedge funds with a total of $4.8 Billion in BAC at the end of June.
7. Pfizer (PFE): There were 75 hedge funds with a total of $5.2 Billion in PFE at the end of June.
8. General Motors (GM): There were 72 hedge funds with a total of $2.8 Billion in GM at the end of June.
9. Marathon Oil (MRO): There were 69 hedge funds with a total of $2.6 Billion in MRO at the end of June.
10. Sanofi (SNY): There were 64 hedge funds with a total of $1.5 Billion in SNY at the end of June.
General Motors, Marathon Oil, and Sanofi are new additions to our top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds list.
Note: We updated our hedge fund data. Now you can have free access to more than 300 hedge funds’ portfolios and portfolio activities as of June 30th.
