This Hedge Fund Slashed Its Position in Scandalous Wells Fargo & Co (WFC), Used Money to Buy More Apple Inc. (AAPL), Open New Stakes

Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU)

– Shares Owned by Gabalex Capital (as of September 30): 100,000

– Value of the Holding (as of September 30): $8.16 million

Moving on to the fund’s bullish moves, there’s Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU). Over the third quarter of 2016, Gabalex started a new position, comprising 100,000 shares, in the company. Also long the stock on September 30, was David Harding’s Winton Capital Management. While the firm held 363,580 shares of the company by the end of the quarter, the figure represented a 46% reduction in the stake, quarter-over-quarter. However, the move could just be profit taking, as the shares gained about 16.4% over the third quarter.

Since the fourth quarter started, shares of Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU) have risen by another 11.2%, most recently helped by the company’s third quarter earnings report, as EPS of $2.66 beat the Street’s consensus by $0.17.

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB)

– Shares Owned by Gabalex Capital (as of September 30): 100,000

– Value of the Holding (as of September 30): $4.28 million

Another newcomer to Gabalex’s portfolio was U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB), which surged by more than 8% over the third quarter, and an extra 6% in what’s gone of the fourth quarter. A few weeks ago, the firm reported third quarter EPS of $0.84, in-line with estimates, and revenue of $5.39 billion, which beat consensus expectations by $40 million.

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) was also owned by First Eagle Investment Management and Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management on September 30. As per their 13F filings, the firms held 11.3 million shares and 815,730 shares, respectively, at the end of the third quarter.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

– Shares Owned by Gabalex Capital (as of September 30): 150,000

– Value of the Holding (as of September 30): $16.95 million

Finally, there’s Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Between July and September, Gabalex tripled its position in the tech behemoth, thou still remaining a relatively small shareholder. Other not-huge investors of the stockincluded Charles Paquelet’s Skylands Capital, with 365,165 shares, and Tom Gayner’s Markel Gayner Asset Management, with 61,100 shares, or about $6.9 million in stock on September 30.

After hitting a bottom in May, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) managed to return to an uptrend, delivering returns of more than 19.75% in the third quarter. However, shares are almost flat quarter-to-date, and have been tumbling recently on the back of several pieces of bad news. On Tuesday, CNBC reported that analysts at KGI Securities expect to see iPhone sales continue their decline in the first quarter of 2017, citing weak demand in China and slow sales of the smaller version of the iPhone 7.

Disclosure: None