Move Over Apple — Hedge Funds Have A New Favorite Stock

Apple is no longer the most-loved stock among hedge funds.

The Goldman Sachs equity strategy team is out with its new list of the most important stocks in the hedge fund world, and " after three consecutive years as the top hedge fund holding, AAPL has slipped to third pace, with 67 funds (11%) holding the stock as a top-10 position versus 109 last quarter (19%)."

The new top stock: AIG.

At the end of the fourth quarter, 117 funds were holding the stock, and it was a top-10 holding for 80 of those funds.

AIG is up 22.5 percent since mid-November, almost double the S&P 500.

Goldman analyst  Michael Nannizzi has a $43 price target on the stock, 14.5 percent above today's closing share price of $37.57.

The insurer reports earnings Thursday after the closing bell.

For those unfamiliar with the VIP list, here is a brief explanation from Goldman of how it works:

Our hedge fund VIP list (Bloomberg ticker: ) consists of stocks in which fundamentally-driven hedge funds have a large stake. We define stocks that “matter most” to hedge funds as the positions that appear most frequently among the top ten holdings within hedge fund portfolios. For this analysis, we limit our universe to hedge funds with 10 to 200 distinct equity positions in an attempt to isolate fundamentally-driven investors from quantitative funds or funds that mirror private equity investments.

Click on the image below to see the top ten stocks held by hedge funds, according to the latest list:

• Sony Unveils The PlayStation 4
  
• Senator Fathers Child With Daughter Of Another Senator
  
• Marissa Mayer's Morning-Show Mess-Up