Donald Trump Had Awful Things to Say About These 5 Companies, Now See What Hedge Funds Have to Say

Since launching his presidential campaign last June, billionaire and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has bashed a host of things, from people, to countries, to racial groups, to companies. While most of the companies have provoked his ire because of outsourcing, others have been criticized due to a variety of reasons. The interesting thing is that while Mr. Trump was criticizing these companies, he was also betting on a number of them by owning a stake in them, which was revealed in a recent regulatory filing. In this post, we will take a look at five prominent companies that Mr. Trump has bashed since launching his campaign and will discuss what the hedge funds in our database thought about those companies heading into the second quarter.

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Mr. Trump Lays Into Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

 – Investors with long positions (as of March 31): 133

 – Aggregate value of investors’ holdings (as of March 31): $14.70 billion

Let’s start with Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), which has been continuously receiving flak from Mr. Trump. While giving a speech in Texas in February, Mr. Trump said that he has respect for Amazon’s founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, but accused Mr. Bezos of buying the Washington Post “to have political influence.” Last month, Mr. Trump again lashed out at the Washington Post after reports surfaced that the newspaper had assembled a team of 20 reporters to dig into the real estate deals that Mr. Trump has done in the past. This time Mr. Trump accused Mr. Bezos and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) of using the Washington Post to influence lawmakers in Washington so that they “don’t tax Amazon like they should be taxed.” During the first quarter, the net ownership of Amazon among the funds in our system declined by eight while the aggregate value of their holdings in it dropped by 15.12%. However, the e-commerce giant was still the sixth-most popular company among the hedge funds that we track. Billionaire Andreas Halverson‘s Viking Global increased its stake in Amazon by 34% to 3.44 million shares during the first quarter.

Companies In Which Mr. Trump Has Invested (and Bashed)

Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS)

 – Investors with long positions (as of March 31): 49

 – Aggregate value of investors’ holdings (as of March 31): $3.09 billion

Mr. Trump criticized Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) last year for replacing American workers with foreign ones and asked the company “to hire back every one of the workers they replaced.” He also stated that if he becomes President, he will never give H-1B visas to companies that fire American workers and replace them with foreigners. While he said that he had changed his hard-line view on the H-1B Visa while speaking at the GOP debate in March, within hours of the debate ending his campaign released a statement in which he again lashed out at the H-1B visa program for allowing “temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay.” According to his recent regulatory filing, Mr. Trump owns between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of the entertainment giant’s stock. The number of funds in our database that reported owning a stake in the company declined by two quarter-over-quarter as of March 31, while the aggregate value of their holdings in it shrank by $633 million. Jonathon Jacobson‘s Highfields Capital Management initiated a stake in Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) during the first quarter, purchasing 1.63 million shares of the company.

Three more stocks that Mr. Trump has bashed are studied on the next page.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

 – Investors with long positions (as of March 31): 152

 – Aggregate value of investors’ holdings (as of March 31): $14.82 billion

Speaking at Liberty University in January, Mr. Trump said that “we’re gonna get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries.” That rhetoric was followed up on in February when he asked people to boycott Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s products at a town hall event in South Carolina, citing the company’s refusal to help the FBI in unlocking the iPhone of one of the shooters involved in last year’s San Bernardino attack. The ironic thing that emerged after Mr. Trump asked people to boycott Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was that he himself was sending tweets via an iPhone. In his regulatory filing, Mr. Trump revealed that he holds multiple investments in the company, valued at between $1.1 million and $2.25 million. Apple was the fourth-most popular company among the hedge funds that we track at the end of first quarter, with its net ownership among those funds increasing by 19 during the first quarter, while the aggregate value of their holdings in it dropped by $2.9 billion. The holding company of legendary investor Warren Buffett initiated a stake in the company during the first quarter, purchasing 9.8 million shares.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)

 – Investors with long positions (as of March 31): 33

 – Aggregate value of investors’ holdings (as of March 31): $613.63 million

Moving on, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) has been criticized continuously by Mr. Trump ever since the company revealed its plans to build a factory in Mexico last year. Within a few days of launching his Presidential campaign, Mr. Trump stated that he will impose a 35% tax on any vehicle that Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) manufactures in Mexico and sells in the U.S. After Ford announced in April that it is going ahead with its plan to construct a $1.6 billion assembling plant in the neighboring country, Mr. Trump called that decision “an absolute disgrace.” Despite his grudge, Mr. Trump owns shares of the automaker worth between $500,000 and $1 million. Hedge funds in our system were not overly optimistic about the company’s future in the first quarter, as net ownership of the company among them fell by six and the aggregate value of their holdings in it fell by $418 million. Billionaire Israel Englander‘s Millennium Management was one of the hedge funds that reduced its stake in Ford during the first quarter, by 47% to 1.78 million shares.

Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ)

 – Investors with long positions (as of March 31): 63

 – Aggregate value of investors’ holdings (as of March 31): $5.66 billion

Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ) was another stock in which Mr. Trump did the exact opposite when it came to putting his money where his mouth his. After Nabisco, a subsidiary of Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ), announced last August that it would be laying off 600 employees in Chicago and open a new manufacturing facility in Salinas, Mexico, Mr. Trump said “I love Oreos. I will never eat them again.” Although he doesn’t own a stake in the company anymore, he reported receiving between $5,000 and $15,000 in interest income from his stake in Mondelez in his regulatory filing. During the first quarter, the number of hedge funds in our system long Mondelez increased by six, but the aggregate value of their holdings in the company dropped by over $1 billion. Bill Ackman‘s Pershing Sqaure was among the hedge funds that cut its stake in Mondelez significantly during the first quarter, by 48% to just under 23 million shares.

Disclosure: None