Hedge Funds Hike IBM, EMC, Stakes

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - IBM (IBM) and EMC (EMC) may lack the glitz of Apple (AAPL) and Facebook (FB), but the tech giants still have their fans among star fund managers.

Warren Buffett, who initiated a position in IBM last year, has increased his stake in the Armonk, N.Y.-based company, according to 13F documents filed recently with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Berkshire Hathaway added 872,500 shares, taking its IBM position to 67,517,896. The Oracle of Omaha has traditionally avoided tech stocks, but revealed last year that he was won over by IBM's 2010 annual report and the company's history of strong leadership.

Buffett, who increased his position earlier this year, also lauded IBM's extensive reach into corporate IT departments, where it sells a vast array of wares.

IBM is also proving popular with D.E. Shaw, which added 268,888 shares to take its stake up to 2,402,054, and Citadel Advisors, which added 169,122 shares, bringing its holdings to 181,674.

Storage giant and IBM rival EMC has also been attracting attention from star fund managers, such as Steve Cohen and his SAC Capital Advisors which added 3,057,160 shares to take his position to 3,481,140. Ken Griffin's Citadel Advisors bought 1,538,081 shares, bringing the fund's EMC stake to 5,203,504.

EMC continues to be a Wall Street darling, thanks to the ongoing data explosion and the company's majority ownership of virtualization trailblazer VMware (VMW).

James Simons' Renaissance Technologies, however, liquidated its positions in both EMC and IBM, selling 1,793,000 shares, and 471,200 shares, respectively.

David Shaw's D.E. Shaw took its EMC stake down by selling 2,909,722 shares.

IBM shares dipped 0.29% to $184.98 on Thursday, while EMC's stock crept up 0.13% to $23.43.

--Written by James Rogers in New York.

Follow @jamesjrogers

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