Big investors are increasing their stake in Apple
Institutional ownership in Apple (AAPL) stock is picking up, but it remains below its S&P 500 weighting, indicating there’s room for upside, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty said in a research report Wednesday. “Top 100 institutional shareholders had an average of 2.5% of their portfolio allocated to Apple exiting Q3, up from 2.3% at the end of Q2,” she said. “This allocation level remains well below the 3.8% weighting of Apple in the S&P 500 and concentration peak of 4.5% seen in Q3 2012.” The quarter-to-quarter improvement in institutional ownership of Apple stock is a positive trend and makes Apple’s recent outperformance in the market more sustainable than it was two years ago, Huberty said. Apple and Microsoft (MSFT) are the only two companies with portfolio allocation among top 100 shareholders below the S&P 500 weighting, she noted. Institutional investors include mutual funds, pension funds, hedge funds and private equity…