Apple Inc. (AAPL): David Einhorn Among the 10 Most Committed Hedge Fund Managers

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a hedge fund favorite, it’s no secret. At the end of the third quarter, our records show that among the funds we track, Apple was held by 146 different money managers, significantly above Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (132) and American International Group, Inc. (NYSE:AIG) (110).

We’ve already taken a look at the top 10 fund managers invested in Apple in terms of total market value, but we haven’t shown you which hedge funds are the most committed to this stock. Let’s look at which managers have the largest percentage of their portfolios allocated to shares of AAPL. The column you’ll want to pay attention to is highlighted in green.

A full look at the hedge fund industry’s interest in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) can be seen by clicking on the chart above, but we can notice a few key trends. Of the managers with the greatest percentage of their portfolios allocated to the stock, four have truly mammoth positions, i.e. of greater than one million shares. Robert Raiff has nearly one-fourth of his entire 13F portfolio invested in Apple, but it’s worth noting that the total value of his holdings is $109 million – rather small in the hedge fund world.

Some of the bigger players on this list include David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital and Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital, both of whom hold AAPL positions in excess of $700 million – a threshold that is also surpassed by Tiger Global and Coatue Management.

Interestingly, Einhorn and Raiff cut their holdings of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) rather significantly in the third quarter, which may be profit-taking at its finest. In our opinion, AAPL is still a great long-term investment, as it trades at a mere 10 times forward earnings, 30% cheaper than Google. While earnings growth is slowing down, sell-side analysts still expect solid EPS expansion going forward, about 19.6% a year through 2017.

Though the technical indicators are bearish (see why this market guru thinks Apple’s chart is “unsettling”), value investors looking to add shares for the long haul may be best served by buying on the dip. Let us know your opinions in the comments section below.