On the other hand, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), even though it had an outstanding performance, slipped to the second spot, although the number of funds holding shares grew by one to 150 investors, which held a total of $21.52 billion worth of stock, versus $20.88 billion a year earlier. As usual, the largest shareholder of Apple among the funds we track is billionaire Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital, which owns 52.76 million shares (unchanged over the quarter). The value of Icahn’s stake increased to nearly $6.57 billion from $5.82 billion as the stock appreciated by 13.2% during the first quarter. Compared to Actavis, investors own a tiny portion of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), with their aggregate ownership representing less than 3% of its market cap and Icahn’s stake amassing just 0.9% of the outstanding stock. Icahn has been expressing his bullish sentiment regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) pretty much ever since he bought his first shares. A couple of weeks ago, he said during an interview that he is very confident about the company and prefers to buy more shares when the stock loses some ground. A new letter to Tim Cook was disclosed earlier today in which Icahn stated a price target of $240 per share and urged the CEO to further increase the buyback program, which was already increased by $50 billion to $140 billion. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) managed to beat the earnings and revenue expectations for the last quarter and Icahn forecasts EPS of $12.00 per share for the Fiscal Year 2016 (versus $6.50 for FY2014), which gives the stock a P/E multiple of around 18.x. Icahn considers this P/E “conservative” if the company enters two new markets (Television and Automotive, as it is currently expected to do). Another shareholder of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, owning 10.81 million shares as of the end of March.
On the third spot is Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), in which a total of 129 funds reported stakes worth $7.09 billion. Interestingly enough, the number of funds holding shares went up from 118 a quarter earlier, but the value of capital declined from $7.90 billion at the end of December. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is celebrating three years since its IPO, which was labeled as “disastrous” by many, but the stock more than doubled during this period as the company beat the estimates for ten straight quarters until recently, when its results for the first three months of 2015 came mixed with revenue of $3.54 billion missing the forecast of $3.56 billion on the back of foreign exchange rate fluctuations. However, the company managed to post user growth to 1.44 billion and showed solid growth on the mobile front. Among the shareholders of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) are Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management with 7.91 million shares, up by 733,300 shares over the quarter, and billionaire Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management, which disclosed holding 320,300 shares (up by 2,800 shares on the quarter). In an interview at the beginning of April, Robertson put Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) in a list of “great growth companies” alongside Google and Apple.
