Fidelity Investments, the largest shareholder of U.S. airlines, cut its stake by more than half in the corporate parents of American Airlines and United Airlines in the third quarter.
The sales unwound Fidelity’s purchases earlier this year that made it the biggest shareholder in American parent AMR Corp. and United parent UAL Corp. Boston-based Fidelity, the world’s largest mutual- fund company, disclosed the sales Tuesday in regulatory filings.
Fidelity sold 11.9 million shares of AMR, or 54 percent of its stake, and held 10.1 million shares as of Sept. 30. It sold 10.9 million shares of UAL, or 76 percent of its stake, leaving it with 3.5 million shares.
American and United are the world’s largest and second-largest carriers, respectively.
Fidelity may have thought “that things have peaked,” said Alan Sbarra of San Francisco-based airline consultants Roach & Sbarra. “On the one hand, all these stocks have really shot up in anticipation of better earnings. But we haven’t gotten there yet, to the really big earnings cycle.”
Fidelity also sold 3.7 million shares of US Airways Group Inc. That represented 30 percent of its holdings in US Airways, the seventh-largest U.S. airline.
Sophie Launay, a Fidelity spokeswoman, declined to comment. A spokesman for AMR and spokeswomen for US Airways and UAL had no immediate comment.
Fidelity held a combined 131 million shares as of June 30 in the eight largest U.S. airlines not in bankruptcy, a stake valued then at $2.96 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
After accounting for the changes in Tuesday’s filings, Fidelity held 104 million shares in those airlines valued at about $2.01 billion.
Shares of AMR have gained 13 percent this year. Shares of US Airways have advanced 30 percent this year.
Shares of UAL have fallen 30 percent in Nasdaq Stock Market trading since UAL emerged from bankruptcy protection Feb. 1.
