This Moneymaker is Betting on Apple

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) may have tumbled to the $530 range from lofty highs of more than $700 in mid-September, but hedge fund manager Patrick Armstrong was busy buying the iPhone maker in December. Armstrong told Reuters that his confidence in the sectors of luxury goods and technology, led by Apple, was unshaken.

Armstrong, whose Armstrong Investment Managers manages $220 million, said that companies from those sectors will take the S&P 500 and other markets to previously untouched highs in 2013. “Some equity markets, including the S&P 500, will reach their all-time highs (in 2013),” he said.

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Technology will see high growth in emerging markets, such as India, where tablet sales are expected to at least double this year to six million.

Armstrong is also holding on to positions in luxury goods companies such as L’Oreal, LVMH, and BMW. “We prefer to pay premium multiple[s] to get premium growth — [we’re] not convinced [by the] margins and growth of the staple companies,” he said. Among those that he is shorting are Nestle, Unilever (NYSE:UN), and Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG).

Armstrong’s Diversified Dynamic Solution fund returned 8 percent in the first 11 months of last year, against a hedge fund industry average of 3.17 percent in the year to December 28. The fund lost 0.2 percent in 2011 but made 12.3 percent in 2010 and 31.3 percent in 2009, Reuters said.

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