Julian Robertson’s Giant Turnaround On Apple

Julian Robertson's Giant Turnaround On Apple, Which He Once Called The Greatest Company In The World

It's official.

Apple is no longer the hedge fund darling anymore.

We've seen this coming with a handful of hedge funds exiting their positions in Apple.

Long-time Apple investor Julian Robertson, who runs Tiger Management, dumped his entire stake in the tech giant sometime during the first quarter of 2013 ended March 31st, according to a 13F regulatory filing.

For a long time, Apple was one of the legendary hedge fund manager's biggest holdings.

Back in October 2012, Robertson told Maria Bartiromo on CNBC's "Closing Bell" that Apple was one of the great companies available at "very reasonable prices."

He called it a magnificent company and a "great value at these levels," during that interview.

"It's rare that you get a chance at having a great company at a great value," Robertson added.

Since the date of that interview, Apple's stock has fallen more than 27%. The stock is down more than 19% since the beginning of this year.

If you recall, Apple was also the subject of a memorable interview between Robertson and Erin Burnett.

Burnett, a former CNBC anchor who now works for CNN, asked Robertson in November 2010 if he was worried about an Apple bubble.

"But big picture, you've got some worries. Because, well, everybody knows Apple is a hot stock, it's sort of become, I'm going to be honest, it's almost like a cult these days, Julian," Burnett said.

"The one thing I've learned is don't be frightened of a stock that's going up and Apple is so expensive that despite teh fact that people keep pouring into it, it doesn't go up wildly. And I mean 18 or 20x earnings for maybe the greatest company in the world I don't think is at all high," Robertson responded.

For a long-time, Apple's stock was viewed as a hedge fund favorite. During the fourth quarter of 2012, though, a number of big named hedge fund managers including Daniel Loeb, Barry Rosenstein, Eric Mindich, Stephen Mandel and John Thaler (just to name a few) completely dumped their positions in the iPhone maker.

Robertson is just the latest to throw in the towel on the tech giant.

Now here's a timeline of Robertson's Apple position over the past five years based on regulatory filings with the SEC: