The manager of the £102.1m RCM Technology investment trust has cut Apple from his top-10 holdings in a bid to focus on software-only technology firms.
In recent months Walter Price has sold down much of his holding in the US consumer technology giant and instead focused on companies supplying ‘software as a service’ and those feeding into the growth of cloud computing – six of which now feature in his top 10.
The manager said: “The rationale for the sale was that normalised margins for Apple give a value of $450 a share, which looks about right.
“Apple talks about China as a big growth area but the Chinese are using Samsung products more. It’s losing [market] share in China pretty fast.”
Apple shares traded at $483.7 as at February 11.
Mr Price last year also sold out completely from a 5 per cent holding in Microsoft, citing concerns that the traditional PC ‘cycle’ of consumers buying new computers had been broken, meaning computers were updated whenever they broke rather than when new models come out.
In contrast, Mr Price has backed Yahoo to rebuild its brand after it lost almost all its search market share to Google.
The RCM Technology trust’s shares have posted a 56.8 per cent gain in five years to February 8 on a total return basis.
