By Jennifer Ablan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hedge fund Greenlight Capital, run by David Einhorn, cut its stake in Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL.O) by 6.2 percent to 8.6 million shares during the fourth quarter, ahead of the iPhone maker's strong rally this year, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.
Apple shares (NASDAQ:AAPL.O) are up 15 percent in the year to date. Its stock market value ballooned this week beyond $700 billion, larger than Switzerland's gross domestic product
Greenlight's move was disclosed in quarterly disclosures of manager stock holdings, in what are known as 13F filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
In another regulatory filing on Friday, David Tepper's Appaloosa Management hedge fund revealed that it had dissolved its share stake in Apple.
This week, billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn said the technology company's shares should be trading at $216 apiece, equivalent to a market capitalization of about $1.26 trillion. Apple closed up 49 cents at $127.08 a share on Friday.
Einhorn also took a 3.8 million-share stake in Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) during the fourth quarter of 2014, regulatory filings showed.
Harvard Management also sold out of Apple, unloading 194,600 shares, according to a filing. But Harvard University's investment arm took a new position in Allergan Inc (NYSE:AGN), as activist investor William Ackman pushed the Botox maker to sell itself to Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.
Tech investor Dan Benton's Andor Capital took the opposite bet on Apple from his hedge fund peers. Benton added 250,000 shares to his position, according to a filing, raising his fund's total stake to 3 million shares.