A man holds an iPhone 6s Plus as the Apple iPhone 6s and 6s Plus go on sale at an Apple Store in Los Angeles, California September 25, 2015. REUTERS/JONATHAN ALCORN
A man holds an iPhone 6s Plus as the Apple iPhone 6s and 6s Plus go on sale at an Apple Store in Los Angeles, California September 25, 2015. Reuters/Jonathan Alcorn

New filings reveal that billionaire hedge fund manager David Einhorn just upped his stakes in Apple. Likewise, analysts expect Apple's stock to rise as much as 40 per cent despite changing its focus to other services.

According to the 13-F filing under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the billionaire's Greenlight Capital owned a total of 11.2 million Apple stock shares as of Sept. 30. This was a considerable jump from the company's previous stake which was at only 7.4 million on June 30, the previous quarter. According to The Wall Street Journal, Einhorn raised his Apple stakes after he went under fire for posting his worst year since the financial crisis. However, Einhorn's recent moves are against the tide as other hedge funds reduced their Apple's stakes.

For instance, Adage Capital Partners now has 8.5 million shares while Coatue Management LLC and Appaloosa Management have 6.8 million and 1.3 million shares respectively. Nevksy Capital and Bridgewater Associates also joined the party at 908,156 and 274,852 shares. Additionally, Tiger Eye Capital stepped back on its stake from 356,502 shares to nothing covering June to September, reports Reuters.

Goldman Sachs, on other hand, claimed that investors have punished Apple unfairly, mistaking it for a hardware company, according to Barrons. In a recent note, Simona Jankowski and her team bumped up Apple's stock to Conviction Buy Wednesday. This accounted for US$163 (approx. AU$227) price target equivalent to 40 per cent.

Jankowski said that the stock is at extremely low trading because the market sees Apple more as a hardware company. The company has been limited to recurring revenue that only covers product visible on the market and does not carry over the next product cycle. Nonetheless, the analyst expects that Apple will be shifting to another set of revenue stream as the smartphone market is already maturing. For instance, Apple has introduced the iPhone Upgrade Program then introduced the Apple TV. The latter is considered a "powerful" move for the company's future.

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