Business

Hedgies back off of Apple

Hotshot hedge funds began selling out of Apple in the third quarter, just as the tech giant was beginning to sink.

Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital, Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global, Eric Mindich’s Eton Park Capital, David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital and Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors each pared their Apple positions during the quarter, according to reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission filed yesterday.

Apple shares are off 23 percent since their Sept. 19 peak. They closed yesterday at $536.88, down 1.1 percent.

Despite selling off Apple shares, the tech titan remains one of the biggest holdings for Maverick, Tiger Global and Greenlight. In fact, its slide pushed their monthly returns negative.

At the end of August, Apple was the most profitable of hedge funds’ VIP holdings, followed by Goldman Sachs.

Stocks on Goldman’s VIP list are those that are among the top 10 holdings of so-called fundamentally driven hedge funds. Apple has been on that list since 2001.