Life Without Apple Is Still Peachy for Some Fund Managers

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- Life without Apple(AAPL) just doesn't seem possible for most mutual fund managers, who have relied on the stock of the iPhone and iPad maker to juice returns for the better part of a decade.

But there are some maverick fund managers who, even with a large-cap mandate, haven't bought Apple, yet have done quite well without it.

Apple, now at $610 a share and with a market value of $568 billion, is the largest member of the S&P 500, at 4.6% of the benchmark. Its outsized presence and performance pretty much makes it a mandatory holding for mid- to large-cap funds, but it's owned by a lot of other funds as well.

At the end of the first quarter, 4,877 funds had a stake in it, holding a combined 69% of Apple's shares.

And they're surely all thankful for its existence, as Apple shares are up 51% this year, versus the S&P 500's 11.3% gain. Over three years, Apple is up an annual average of 70%, more than three times that of the index.

But Dan Culloton, Morningstar's associate director of fund analysis, cites a handful of large-cap funds with top performances in the large-blend category, with nary an Apple in sight.