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Google overtakes Apple as top U.S. hedge fund, mutual fund holding

Thursday, March 7, 2013 · 12:14 pm · 39 Comments

“Google Inc. (GOOG), operator of the world’s largest Web-search engine, has passed Apple Inc. (AAPL) to become the most-owned stock by the 50 biggest actively managed U.S. mutual funds, according to a report by Citigroup Inc,” Lisa Rapaport reports for Bloomberg. “Among hedge funds, Google was also the top holding, according to the report, which examined investments at the end of the fourth quarter for the largest funds by asset size.”

“Google’s shares are now trading at about 25 times profit, compared with a price-to-earnings ratio of less than 10 for Apple, according to data compiled by Bloomberg,” Rapaport reports. “That gap is at its widest since June 2005, two years before competition between the two companies in mobile devices began to intensify.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Good, maybe they’ll turn their attention to manipulating GOOG instead of AAPL for a change.

Categories: News

Tags: aapl, Apple, Apple P/E/ ratio, Apple stock, Citigroup, finance, GOOG, google, hedge funds, investing, mutual funds, P/E compression, P/E ratio

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Comment Feed

39 Comments

Raymond

Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 12:16 pm · Reply

I never invest in stock market again as how people work on dreaming .
- peterblood71
  
  Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 12:28 pm · Reply
  
  Makes imperfect sense to me!
birdy

Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 12:19 pm · Reply

cool they are all in.
- Zeke
  
  Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 1:26 pm · Reply
  
  And soon to be all out. The collapse is imminent. The 2013 tech bubble is about to pop.
  - greggthurman
    
    Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 1:38 pm · Reply
    
    “That gap is at its widest since June 2005, two years before competition between the two companies in mobile devices began to intensify”
    
    Uh, Apple didn’t have a mobile phone until 2007. How could be competing in 2005.
    - Zeke
      
      Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 1:57 pm · Reply
      
      And Google’s ad rates are collapsing due to the shift to mobile search. This is a subject that they avoid talking about on conference calls. It will come home to roost soon.
breeze

Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 12:33 pm · Reply

Google’s new record high is now as vulnerable to collapse as Apple’s.
breeze

Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 12:36 pm · Reply

Surely Apple’s collective brain power is capable of devising a sting that will burn the hedge funds to unrecoverable collapse…

What’s the hold up guys ?
Ed Cheung

Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 12:51 pm · Reply

Good. Let them get kicked around by the analysts now.
pdr400

Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 12:58 pm · Reply

They’re holding their stocks wrong.
- Zeke
  
  Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 1:27 pm · Reply
  
  Love it!
Agent Provocateur

Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 1:00 pm · Reply

And to think the balloon was popped with a pinprick from a shitty Apple Maps app introduced because Apple was greedy and wanted to control more than they already had. Not the ultimate cause of the correction in Apple’s then grossly overpriced stock, just the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The simple fact is that Apple’s record of competing against Google head to head is not so good. Apple got beaten badly on mobile ads, is still behind on mapping, is steadily losing ground everywhere but the US on mobile phones, is behind in deployed cloud technologies.

Google is behind in music, books, apps for Android and the base OS, but is moving up rapidly.

It is a push on many other things like mobile payments.

Bottom line-
Google’s services are applicable to Windows, LINUX, UNIX, Mac OS, Chrome OS, iOS and Android computers while Apple continues largely to limit services to a proprietary ecosystem chained to their hardware with few exceptions. Google is moving forward on desktop, mobile (Android), wearable (Glass), cross platform browsers (Chrome), web services, retail, music, books and more.

Apple is rumored to be working on a watch and a unicorn TV project that is unseen almost 18 months after the death of Steve Jobs. Apple has seen a large turnover of top staff and has shown no roadmap forward and has a recent track record of underachievement in delivering products ready for market and on time.

Apple needs a Bozo purge unless they have a huge rabbit ready to pull out of a very large hat. And soon.
- Zeke
  
  Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 1:38 pm · Reply
  
  Wrong on so many counts. Apple iOS is growing faster than Android, and iPhone is growing faster than Samsung’s offerings. Apple as a manufacturer holds the largest share of the smartphone market, and it’s growing. Those are just a few of the many areas where you’re incorrect.
  - Agent Provocateur
    
    Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 3:16 pm · Reply
    
    In the United States iOS is ahead, outside it is not. The US smartphone market if far more mature than most others and most new growth is in the middle and bottom of the market- something that does not align with Apple’s historic margins. The largest portion of future growth outside the US is in developing countries- something that also does not align with Apple’s business model.
    
    Item next, Samsung is not Google. It is but one company marketing Android. Android on tablets is weak, but quite rapidly maturing on phones.
    
    Item next, Apple is not a manufacturer of hardware. They design and market stuff made by others.
    
    Siri is a dud, Apple maps is 2nd rate, Safari on Windows is dead. iTunes is a bloated, kludged up mess. Apple mobile ads are a joke. Apple has abandoned the enterprise market, the pro media market and is letting the Macintosh twist in the wind.
    
    The sad thing is that Google is growing and Apple has abandoned the base from which all of it’s success has sprung while chasing mobile phones in a closed ecosystem.
    - groucho
      
      Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 4:47 pm · Reply
      
      So, wise guy, what number do you arrive at when calculating Apples “true value” – that should be interesting considering your statement it’s being GROSSLY overpriced!
      - Agent Provocateur
        
        Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 10:51 pm · Reply
        
        Grossly overpriced was $700+ with people talking out their ass about $1000/share. As to the current value math, do your own homework.
        
        Zeke
        
        Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 11:54 pm · Reply
        
        I have done the math, and if Apple were priced the same as Microsoft (P/E=15) it would be at $750. Overpriced at $700? Not likely.
        
        Agent Provocateur
        
        Friday, March 8, 2013 - 12:21 pm · Reply
        
        P/E isolated is bullshit. If Microsoft is your benchmark you might want to rethink things.
        
        Zeke
        
        Friday, March 8, 2013 - 1:42 pm ·
        
        So Apple with its growth, innovation, and market dominance gets a P/E of 10, and the rotting beached whale, Microsoft gets a P/E of 15 and you’re fine with that. Yeah, right.
        
        Agent Provocateur
        
        Friday, March 8, 2013 - 1:51 pm ·
        
        I repeat- P/E isolated is BS. Do not get hung up on P/E.
        
        Price to earnings is a reflection of current price to current earnings, nothing more than a snapshot of today- not tomorrow. Projected P/E in a volatile economic environment based upon rumored vaporware is a HAWG (Half-Assed Wild Guess).
        
        No company- no matter how well run- operates in a vacuum. The bulk of the developed world is in an economic recession, many governments are in fiscal distress, and the low hanging fruit in most of Apple’s markets has been picked.
        
        No sane person denies Apple’s profit potential going forward, what is in doubt is their ability to stay ahead of competitors and grow- especially given their traditional high margin pricing.
        
        Zeke
        
        Friday, March 8, 2013 - 1:58 pm ·
        
        And so none of this applies to Google, Microsoft, or Samsung? The market is the same market for everyone. Apple has a track record of innovation, growth in REAL profits, as opposed to potential profits based on market share, and cash in the bank. You think Google or Facebook has a future beyond the 3 year horizon? Take a stroll through the market-share-but-no-profits tech graveyard and tell me again how Apple’s valuation compared to Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft is accurate.
        
        Agent Provocateur
        
        Friday, March 8, 2013 - 3:15 pm ·
        
        Facebook is already well into it’s 15 minutes. Google is expanding using the cash pile the ad business throws off and is reported to be moving in on Amazon’s core business next. Apple is giving it’s cash hoard away, releasing HW that they cannot ship and shipping SW not ready for prime time.
        
        Zeke
        
        Friday, March 8, 2013 - 8:38 pm ·
        
        Google’s ad rates are tanking. Apple is paying out 2.5%. Their cash hoard will continue to grow. Your hardware and software comments are subjective. Good luck with your Google stock. Be sure and ask them about declining revenue per click at the next stockholders’ meeting. Nobody’s gotten a straight answer to that question for a couple of years now. Maybe you will.
        
        Groucho
        
        Friday, March 8, 2013 - 2:26 am · Reply
        
        So 705 is “grossly” overpriced but 699 aint? Dont use adverbs u cant handle
        
        Agent Provocateur
        
        Friday, March 8, 2013 - 12:20 pm · Reply
        
        Where do you get $699
    - Zeke
      
      Friday, March 8, 2013 - 9:57 am · Reply
      
      Apple’s 3.5% smartphone share gain was Android’s loss in Q4
      
      http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/03/06/apples-35-smartphone-share-gain-was-androids-loss-in-q4
- Tessellator
  
  Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 6:38 pm · Reply
  
  Except Apple maps is excellent, significantly better than googles maps app (on iOS -OR- ‘roid)
  - Agent Provocateur
    
    Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 10:50 pm · Reply
    
    Crapple Maps is getting better. I gave it a try on an extended trip hopping errands yesterday and not once did it direct me to turn into a retaining wall. It tried some really effed up routing that will only get better with crowdsourced data analysis.
    
    Not up to the Google Maps standard.
silverhawk1

Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 1:09 pm · Reply

The jinx is working; AAPL up a buck on GOOG!!/s/
ppeterson

Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 1:25 pm · Reply

Another milestone for Tim Cook! The hits just keep on coming.
- Road Warrior
  
  Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 2:28 pm · Reply
  
  If Tim Cook had anything to do with moving the Hedge Hogs over to Google instead of Apple he should be kept as CEO for a long long time. Now maybe the stock will start to behave rationally, although I doubt it.
- 8^þ
  
  Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 3:24 pm · Reply
  
  Silly, ppeterson; kicks are for trids!
janekg

Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 1:29 pm · Reply

Another reason to stay well away from Wall Street.
Jersey_Trader

Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 1:32 pm · Reply

For 5 months these guys have pulled the cash out of AAPL and into Google. Can’t find any more sellers at this point. They make the money when money is moved. Watch what happens when it is time to move the money back into AAPL. It is easier to manipulate Google up. With the size and scale of AAPL, they will loose control as the rush starts.

Apple could start this with a few billion buy back when ever they GET OF THE HANDS AND INGAGE THE DEVASTATION. DO YOUR JOB PLEASE!!!
rdiddly

Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 1:48 pm · Reply

Hey, JT, lay off the all caps, please. You get your point across well enough without them.
fscuttle

Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 1:53 pm · Reply

Wow trading at 25x earnings they better innovate a whole new market quick or its curtains.
critic2

Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 1:55 pm · Reply

GOOG will definitely have to deal with the same problem as AAPL as soon as any of the big funds decides to start taking profits. It may not be tomorrow, but it will inevitably happen to any momentum stock.
fscuttle

Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 1:58 pm · Reply

50 billion in cash and no dividend. They are wide open for a lawsuit.
- Pluto 45
  
  Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 9:10 pm · Reply
  
  With Mutual Fund companies and Hedge funds rushing into Google, it won’t be long before they start clamoring for a dividend. That’s when the fun starts.