Big hedge funds dumped Alibaba, Facebook, Apple stock as market tumbled in fourth quarter

Prominent hedge fund managers sold out of Chinese technology stocks and dumped Silicon Valley majors such as Apple and Facebook while global stock markets cratered during the fourth quarter, according to securities filings released on Thursday.

Activist hedge fund Jana Partners sold its position in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding and reduced its stake in Apple by about 175,000 shares, slicing its position in the company by 63 per cent.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway shrank its Apple stake to 249.6 million shares from 252.5 million shares in the fourth quarter. Buffett’s assistant, Debbie Bosanek, said: “One of the managers other than Warren had a position in Apple and sold part of it in order to make an unrelated purchase. None of the shares under Warren’s direction have ever been sold.”

Soros Fund Management and David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management sold out of their stakes in Apple.

Third Point sold all of its shares of Alibaba and in streaming company Netflix, while reducing its stake in payments company Visa by approximately 200,000 shares, about 11 per cent of its prior position.

Omega Advisors, run by billionaire Leon Cooperman, sold all of its roughly 88,000 shares of Facebook and reduced its stake in Google-parent Alphabet by around a third by selling some 47,600 shares.