The 5 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds: Apple & Microsoft Get The Boot

#3. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

– Number of Hedge Funds With Long Positions (as of June 30): 145

– Aggregate Value of Hedge Funds’ Holdings (as of June 30): $19.8 billion

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) finally made it to the podium, with 145 funds in our database long its stock on June 30, up from 133 on March 31. Among them, Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global was king, with 2.37 million shares valued at $2.34 billion as of June 30. Also bullish were Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management and Alex Snow’s Lansdowne Partners, with almost $1.5 billion in stock each.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has managed to outperform major stock indexes in 2016, posting returns of more than 12.3%, versus the Nasdaq’s 4.7% surge. Earlier this month, analysts at MKM Partners reiterated a ‘Buy’ rating on the company’s shares, while boosting their price target on them to $995 from $850. The reason behind the bullishness were the company’s strong second quarter results, including EPS of $1.78 and revenue of $30.4 billion, which came in ahead of expectations of $1.11 in EPS and $29.55 billion in sales.

#2. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)

– Number of Hedge Funds With Long Positions (as of June 30): 148

– Aggregate Value of Hedge Funds’ Holdings (as of June 30): $15.2 billion

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) jumped one spot on this list, despite the number of hedge funds in our database long the stock falling by 9.7% during the second quarter. As the stock ended the second quarter almost at the same level as it started it and the value of hedgies’ holdings rose by nearly 5% during the period, we can induce that those funds that remained bullish on the social media giant boosted their exposure during the quarter. For instance, Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global, which started a position in the first quarter, boosted its stake by 1% in the second quarter, disclosing ownership of 20.14 million shares, or $2.3 billion in stock, as of June 30. Once again, Alex Snow’s Lansdowne Partners was amongst the most bullish funds as well, holding 5.58 million shares of Facebook after a 51% increase to its holding.

Since the third quarter started, shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) have gained more than 9.1%, most recently helped by a Barron’s article that made the case for the stock having more than 20% upside to come and the announcement that the iconic social media site was changing its News Feed algorithm to reduce the number of misleading headlines and clickbait shown to users.

#1. Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)

– Number of Hedge Funds With Long Positions (as of June 30): 187

– Aggregate Value of Hedge Funds’ Holdings (as of June 30): $29.8 billion

Despite the fact that the number of hedge funds in our database long Google’s two classes of stock declined by 16.1% over the second quarter, the company still remained hedge funds’ darling, counting 187 unique hedge fund backers holding almost $30 billion in stock on June 30. Among the funds that we track, 135 were long Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s Class A stock, while 126 were long Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Class C stock. Among the main shareholders on June 30 was Viking Global, holding 1.79 million Class A shares worth roughly $1.26 billion and 841,255 Class C shares worth about $582 million. Another large investor was Harris Associates, which declared holding 631,571 Class A shares, and 2.18 million Class C shares as of the end of June in its latest 13F filing.

Shares of Alphabet have had a volatile year, but are ultimately up by more than 2.6% year-to-date. Moreover, since the end of the second quarter, the stock has gained almost 15%. Last week, the company announced that it was opening a 14,000-square-foot space for developers and startups in San Francisco. The idea is to provide a space for those that “lack access to the resources and network” that Alphabet has in San Francisco.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no interest in any of the securities or entities mentioned above.