Morgan Stanley’s Apple analyst, Katy Huberty, tracks institutional
ownership of large cap technology stocks. In her most recent analysis of
11 technology stocks owned by the top 100 institutional shareholders
Apple is significantly under-owned and is only one of two, Microsoft
being the other, that is under-owned. (Note that I own Apple shares).
Another positive for Apple’s shares
Since Apple’s shares are overbought in the short-term
having institutions being underweight vs. the S&P 500 Index is a
positive. Also there have been at least four sell-side analysts who have
increased their price target for Apple’s shares since early last week.
UBS’ Apple analyst Steve Milunovich increased his price target from $115 to $125
based upon UBS’ Evidence Lab results on iPhone strength and Bernstein’s
Toni Sacconaghi increased his from $110 to $120. This week BTIG’s Apple analyst Walter Piecyk increased his target from $128 to $135 and Oppenheimer’s Andrew Uerkwitz from $115 to $130.
It is a bit surprising that the percentage of institutional ownership of
Apple’s stock has moved very little from the June to September quarter,
going from 2.3% to 2.5% of their portfolio’s holdings versus a 3.8%
weighting in the S&P 500 (it peaked at 4.5% in September 2012). With
the performance nature of institutions given the 8.4% increase in
Apple’s shares during the September quarter along with the upcoming
iPhone 6 announcement and subsequent positive reviews you would have
thought that institutions would have increased their holdings more
substantially during the quarter.
Source: Morgan Stanley, Katy Huberty
eBay and Facebook are the most over-owned
From Huberty’s chart eBay and Facebook (which actually had peak ownership of 7.7%) are the most over-owned by the top 100 institutions. eBay’s ownership moved up slightly during the quarter while Facebook’s moved down slightly. It is interesting to see that the institution’s ownership of eBay and HP have consistently been above their S&P 500 weightings.
Vanguard owns the most Apple shares
Vanguard owns over 5% of Apple’s stock as of June 2014. This essentially decreases the float since the shares are held in index funds and overall are not going to be sold. State Street is the second largest shareholder at 4.1% with Fidelity in third with 3.0%.
From Huberty’s chart eBay and Facebook (which actually had peak ownership of 7.7%) are the most over-owned by the top 100 institutions. eBay’s ownership moved up slightly during the quarter while Facebook’s moved down slightly. It is interesting to see that the institution’s ownership of eBay and HP have consistently been above their S&P 500 weightings.
Vanguard owns the most Apple shares
Vanguard owns over 5% of Apple’s stock as of June 2014. This essentially decreases the float since the shares are held in index funds and overall are not going to be sold. State Street is the second largest shareholder at 4.1% with Fidelity in third with 3.0%.