Shares of Apple (NasdaqGM: AAPL), the largest U.S. company by market value, are up almost 1.1% Thursday on the not exactly new news that legendary investor Carl Icahn wants the California-based company to repurchase $150 billion, or nearly a third of its current market cap, worth of its own shares.
Icahn now owns about 0.5% of Apple—a stake worth roughly $2.5 billion based on the stock’s closing price Wednesday of nearly $525, reports David Benoit for the Wall Street Journal.
Icahn’s initial investment in the iPhone maker was disclosed on August 13. Since then, shares of Apple have risen 8.4% when including Thursday’s gains. ETFs with large weights to Apple have benefited from an “Icahn Effect,” though not ye large amounts in terms of returns. [ETFs Surging on Apple]
The Technology Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLK), PowerShares QQQ (NasdaqGS: QQQ), Vanguard Information Technology ETF (NYSEArca: VGT) and iShares U.S. Technology ETF (NYSEArca: IYW) have an average weight to Apple of 14.6%. QQQ has the smallest Apple allocation of the four at 12.7%, though the stock is still the ETF’s largest holding. IYW has the largest Apple weight of the quartet at 17.4%.
Interestingly, QQQ has been the best performer of the group since Icahn unveiled his Apple stake. QQQ, the NASDAQ 100 ETF, is up 6.6% since August 13. That is double the 3.3% average return for IYW, VGT and XLK. [Apple’s Impact on Tech ETFs]
Chart Courtesy: ETF Replay