Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Billionaires with Long Positions (as of June 30): 15
Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of June 30): $12.16 Billion
There was one less billionaire tracked by our team that had a stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), the world’s largest company by market capitalization, at the end of the most recent quarter. Similarly, the value of the stakes held by the billionaires decreased from $13.05 billion over the quarter. The shares of Apple have been riding a downtrend over the past few months, as investors have started to ramp up questions about the company’s growth potential as talk of it being the first $1 trillion company began to surface. China’s economic pullback has also put some downward pressure on the company’s stock performance, given that China has been a major catalyst of Apple’s growth recently. The stock has lost more than 12% over the past three months, but is still up by nearly 2% year-to-date. Apple’s recently-launched new products do not seem to alleviate the concerns around the tech giant’s future outlook. Icahn Capital LP, founded by activist investor Carl Icahn, owns 52.76 million shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) as of the end of June.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)
Billionaires with Long Positions (as of June 30): 16
Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of June 30): $2.95 Billion
The number of billionaires invested in Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) stood at 16 at the end of the second quarter, one more than in the previous quarter. By the same token, the value of their investments rose from the $2.43 billion figure reported at the end of the first quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald’s analyst, Youssef Squali, considers Facebook a “top pick in the Internet space”. Just recently, Facebook revealed that 1 billion people had used its service in a single day, while the above-mentioned WhatsApp recently reached 900 million monthly active users. More importantly, the company announced that Instagram ads are available to more types of businesses on a self-serve basis, with those ads expected to generate more than $1 billion in revenues over the next year. From the massive pool of hedge funds and other investors tracked by Insider Monkey, Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital is the largest equity holder of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), with 9.76 million shares.
eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY)
Billionaires with Long Positions (as of June 30): 21
Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of June 30): $6.98 Billion
eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) is by far the most popular tech stock among the billionaires observed by our team, with 21 billionaires holding stakes in the company at the end of the most recent quarter, compared with 17 reported a quarter ago. Nevertheless, the value of the stakes dropped from $7.29 billion. The shares of eBay have had a great run this year, if not considering the recent pullback triggered by the broader market downturn. Nonetheless, they have still managed to return over 10% year-to-date. Cantor Fitzgerald’s Squali downgraded the stock to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ and established a price target of $27. The analyst suggested that the downgrade was based on “the slow-growth nature of the remaining assets”, after the company spun off PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) earlier this year. Icahn Capital LP holds 109.94 million shares of eBay as of June 30.
Disclosure: None
