Greenlight Hedge Fund Increases Stake in Apple

Greenlight Capital increased its stake in Apple during the 3rd quarter, according to SEC filings. The hedge fund operated by billionaire David Einhorn increased its stake in Apple from 1.1 million shares to 1.3 million shares, meaning he has almost a half billion dollars invested in the company.

Apple on Wall Street

The filing covers the third quarter, which ended September 30th, four days before the unveiling of Apple’s iPhone 4S and five days before Apple cofounder Steve Jobs passed away. It’s not known if either development resulted in a material change in the hedgefund’s AAPL holdings, as any changes in the company’s portfolio won’t be disclosed until after December 31st of 2011.

The significance of Greenlight’s activities relate to Mr. Einhorn’s record, especially his prescient short selling of Lehman Brothers in 2008, before the downfall of that institution led to the economic collapse from which the world is still struggling to recover. He also called out Allied Capital before that company was found guilty of violating securities laws.

In May, Mr. Einhorn also called Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer the biggest overhang for the company’s stock, and called for his ouster as the head of the company. Despite that, however, Greenlight increased its holding in MSFT to 15.2 million shares, and the firm is officially bullish on the Redmond, WA company.

Another company Greenlight is bullish on is Sprint, Apple’s most recent U.S. iPhone carrier. The hedgefund has pointed to Sprint’s bandwidth capacity as a valuable commodity that will eventually be desired by one of its larger competitors or allow the company to gain share.

All of these stocks moved lower on Monday. Shares of Spring ended at $2.86, down $0.05 (-1.72%), on light volume of 25.9 million shares trading hands. AAPL closed at $379.26, down $5.36 (-1.39%), on moderate volume of 15.5 million shares. MSFT closed at $26.76, down $0.150 (-0.56%), on light volume of 34.2 million shares trading hands.

*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a tiny, almost insignificant share in AAPL stock, as well as shares of Spring, that was not an influence in the creation of this article.