Apple stock may have risen fairly consistently through 2019, but that hasn’t been enough to stop Harvard dumping the stock.
Harvard Management Company, the Harvard-owned investment company which is the largest academic endowment in the world, has sold all of its Apple stock. At the end of the second quarter of 2019, it owned more than $100 million of AAPL.
Interestingly, during the period Harvard sold Apple it ramped up its stake in Facebook. (Which, incidentally, was founded by then-Harvard students.) At the end of Q2, Harvard owned $32 million of Facebook. In its Q3 filings, Harvard owned more than $400 million of Facebook stock. Facebook’s value has also climbed over the course of 2019 — from $135.68 at the start of the year to $199.79 today. However, it has experienced more highs and lows than Apple during that time.
In all, Harvard Management Company has around $1.07 billion in securities investments. Much of Harvard’s investments are in tech giants. At the end of 2018, close to 83% of Harvard’s securities investments were in Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google parent company Alphabet.
In the past quarter, Harvard also sold off its Microsoft stock, while buying $8 million more of Alphabet.
Beyond Harvard: The future for Apple, Facebook and other tech stock
It will be interesting to see what the next year holds for big tech stocks. A number of politicians have been discussing antitrust investigations into tech giants, including Google, Apple, and Facebook.
Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has been particularly vocal about the subject. Recently she proposed breaking up tech giants, saying they “bulldozed competition.” In September, Warren tweeted that Apple has “too much power,” affixing the hashtag #BreakUpBigTech.
With 2020 an election year, that could hint at stock instability on the horizon.
Source: Harvard Crimson
