Fidelity, Janus Henderson, JPMorgan bought Apple stock — then it tanked 15%

Reuters
/ Marcos Brindicci

• Major funds Fidelity, Janus Henderson, JPMorgan, Tiger
  Global Management and Coatue, placed bets on Apple before
  October’s 15% decline.
• Burned by “Red October” market bloodbath, hedge funds have
  had their worst month since May 2010.
• Tech specifically saw a massive sell off in October. A
  survey found funds are least bullish on tech stocks since the
  financial crisis.

Hedge fund Goliaths made some major wrong-way bullish bets on
Apple, just before the stock crashed. 

The so called “Red October” markets bloodbath made it an already
brutal month for investors of all stripes. But slowing iPhone
sales and
supplier warnings piled on Apple specifically, turning
those funds’ bets into losers. Apple fell more than 15% last
month and is down about 20% from its all-time high.  

Mutual fund Fidelity added 7 million shares during the
quarter ended in September,
Reuters reported, bringing its total holdings to about
111 million shares. Phillippe Lafont’s Coatue Management raised
its Apple exposure by a massive 938% to 884,321 shares, according
to Symmetric.io data published in
Reuters.

Janus Henderson added 3.3 million shares for a total of about 21
million shares. The fund has also had a rocky quarter: The

Financial Times reported earlier this month that investors
redeemed a net $4.3 billion in the latest three-month period,
after $2.7 billion of negative investor flows in the quarter
ended June.

Read more: 
Hedge funds just suffered through their worst month in 8 years —
here’s why their struggles could just be getting
started.

Then there’s JPMorgan, which added 1.3 million shares during the
quarter, taking its holding to about 43 million shares, Reuters
said. Meanwhile, Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management
added to its holding, it now owns just over 1 million shares.

A broad hedge fund universe tracked by Hedge
Fund Research lost 3% in October, their worst
month since May 2010, when the eurozone debt crisis was the major
issue facing markets.

And a Bank
of America survey this week found that fund managers are now
the least optimistic on tech since the financial crisis. 

Apple
shares tanked in October

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