Noted hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors has completely sold out of his Apple (AAPL) stock, according to a Security and Exchange Commission filing.
Cooperman, a long time Apple bull, owned more than 260K shares of Apple as of the end of Q3’12, worth some $177 million, but held none as of Dec. 31, 2012.
The Q4 filing also revealed that Cooperman and his hedge fund had acquired almost 3.2 million shares of Facebook (FB), worth some $84 million, nearly 2.2 shares of Crocs Inc (CROX) and 3.1 million shares of Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), among other names.
Cooperman had previously disclosed holding 266,404 shares of Apple. There were no details available in the statement about the timing of Cooperman’s exit from Apple.
Cooperman’s trade is certainly not a positive sign for Apple investors and their confidence. On CNBC, Joe Terranova of Virtus Investment Partners noted that for someone as well respected as Cooperman to exit the trade would more likely mean that “others will follow.” Terranova predicts an exodus of money managers in the stock.
OptionMonster’s Jon Najarian added that he believed Cooperman, whose hedge fund had $7 billion in assets as of last November, was fed up with Apple’s idle cash ($137 billion and counting) on hand.
“I think he’s also frustrated, as many of his peers are, about the capital allocation plan,” he said.
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Shares of Apple were down $2.26, or 0.46%, at $464.75 in pre-market trading / 6:54 AM EST.
Did he look at their income statement? they only made 2 cents per share, and the year before that, 49 cents. That’s a stock that’s worth $28.50? I’d love to hear the rationale. Frustrated with aapl… alright, i don’t really get it when they’re trading at 10x p/e and coming off their most profitable year ever, but we’ll say the growth isn’t as stupid high as it used to be… fine. FB is your go to stock? why not just send a cheque to one of those nigerian princes… FB? really? really?