New York (Reuters) - Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Associates hedge fund firm sold off its stakes in Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Coca-Cola Inc, and Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) during the first quarter and added new stakes in Alphabet Inc and McDonald's Corp, according to the latest regulatory filings.
Bridgewater, the world's largest hedge fund, also slashed its holdings of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) by two-thirds, PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) Inc by about 80 percent and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) nearly in half, the fund's 13-F filing shows.
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn said on CNBC in late April that he sold his entire Apple stake, citing the risk of China's influence on the stock.
Bridgewater also more than tripled its stake in Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) and added new stakes in United Parcel Service Inc (NYSE:UPS), Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:DAL) and D.R. Horton Inc.
In addition, Bridgewater increased its holdings in a number of oil and gas stocks, while reducing exposure to gold miners.
Hedge-fund SEC disclosures are backward-looking and come out 45 days after the end of each quarter. Still, the filings offer a glimpse into what hedge fund managers saw as investment opportunities.
The filings do not disclose short positions, or bets that a stock will fall. As a result, they do not always present a complete picture of a management firm's stock holdings.
A spokeswoman for Bridgewater declined to comment.