Apple’s largest active shareholder cuts stake 10% — but keeps Google

Apple’s largest active shareholder, the $92 billion Fidelity Contrafund, cut its stake of Apple shares by 10 percent in the first two months of the year, according to Reuters. As a result, Google is now the funds’ largest holding.

Apple shares are down $7.26 so far today and down about $260 in the past six months.

In fact, the two company’s shares seem to be heading in opposite directions, with Google up about 25 percent in the past six months, and Apple down about the same percentage in the same half year:

Above: AAPL vs GOOG: the last six months

Image Credit: Google Finance

Apple stock has been hammered since the middle of last year, and even Tim Cook’s virtually unprecedented chat with Wall Street in February of this year had no positive effect, as the slide continued. Some investors have said that Apple’s fundamentals are sound, and that it is a bargain now — that a company with almost $140 billion in the bank will be able to continue its growth.

But Apple has yet to visibly demonstrate that is is willing to think different by producing a cheaper iPhone and react effectively to the competitive threat of Android. While Apple has been holding its own in the American market share battle, Android has been winning the global war.

Fund manager Will Danoff had held 11.56 million shares at the end of December 2012, but only held 10.43 million at the end of February. Fidelity Contrafund is up .5 percent on the day.