Google Inc. Topples Apple Inc. as Top Holding and World’s Most Valuable Brand
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is now the number holding of hedge funds, according to data from Goldman Sachs.
Google landed at number one due to decreased competition among top holdings.
The top five most held stocks were Google Inc, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) and Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC).
Google Inc had also overtaken Apple Inc as world's most valuable brand in the 2014 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brand ranking.
The company is now worth $159 billion with 40 per cent increase year-per-year.
Apple Inc. slid at number two due to a 20 per cent decline in brand value to $148 billion, and while it remained as a top performing brand, it failed to introduce significant new products.
"Google has been hugely innovative in the last year with Google Glass, investments in artificial intelligence and a multitude of partnerships that see its Android operating system becoming embedded in other goods such as cars. All of this activity sends a very strong signal to consumers about what Google is about and it has coincided with a slowdown at Apple," Nick Cooper, managing director of Millward Brown Optimor, said in a statement.
The BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands is the only ranking that uses the views of potential and current buyers of a brand, alongside financial data, to calculate brand value.
"This year's index highlights the end of the recession, with a strong recovery in valuations and, for the first time, real growth across every category and the Top 100 as a whole. What's remarkable is the way that strong brands have led the recovery. Seventy-one of the brands listed in our 2014 Top 100 were there in 2008. Despite the financial turmoil and the digital disruption that have decimated many businesses during the last few years, these brands have remained in the ranking, proving the durability of strong brands," David Roth, CEO of The Store, added.