The "growth outlook for the company remains bright," P. Robert Bartolo, manager of T. Rowe Price Growth Stock fund, wrote to shareholders in a January 2011 letter. He cited the expansion of Apple's retail outlets among the reasons.
Cutting Back
Apple grew to 7.5 percent of Bartolo's fund in the two years ended Dec. 31, 2010, from 3.6 percent, regulatory filings show. The stock represented 7.3 percent of the portfolio as of March 31.
Bartolo, 39, has been managing Growth Fund since 2007. The fund, Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price Group Inc.'s largest, returned 4.9 percent a year in the five years ended June 30, compared with 2.9 percent for the S&P 500 Index, Bloomberg data show.
T. Rowe Price declined to make Bartolo available, Heather McDonold, a spokeswoman for the company, wrote in an e-mail.
Both Bartolo and Danoff have cut their Apple holdings as the company's market value grew. Bartolo held 5.6 million shares as of March 31, down from 6.3 million shares at the end of 2009, according to regulatory filings.
At Danoff's Contrafund, Apple represented 2.1 percent of holdings, with 11.7 million Apple shares at the end of 2008, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. By the end of 2010, Apple was 7.1 percent of the fund and the share count reached 16.5 million. Between Dec. 31 and June 30, the fund cut its holdings of Apple by about half a million shares, Bloomberg data show.
Cisco's Example
A second fund managed by Danoff, Fidelity Advisor New Insights Fund, had 6.3 percent of its assets in Apple, or 3.4 million shares, as of June 30, according to Bloomberg data.
Fidelity managers can't discuss individual holdings, said Sophie Launay, a spokeswoman for the firm, explaining why no one from the company would talk about Apple.