The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, or STRS Ohio, offloaded some Tesla Inc TSLA 2.44% and Apple Inc AAPL 0.77% shares and snapped up more of General Motors Company GM 1.98% and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd- ADR BABA 13.34% in the third quarter, Barron's reported.

What Happened

According to Barron's, the pension sold 864,478 Apple shares in the third quarter (after a 4-for-1 split in August), which brought its total down to 9.8 million. The public pension fund is one of the largest in the U.S., with $80.9 billion in managed assets.

The financial news outlet rates Apple among its top 10 stocks for 2021 on the back of high expectations for 5G phone sales, while reserving skepticism over the company's reported electric vehicle plans.

STRS Ohio also brought its holdings of Tesla shares down to 316,583 after selling 41,987 shares (also following a 5-for-1 split in August).

Meanwhile the fund bought 750,442 GM shares, bringing its total to 2.8 million. And it raised its total number of Alibaba American depositary receipts to 205,434 with the purchase of 46,700 ADRs.

YTD Performance

As of the end of trading this week, the share prices of these four companies were all up this calendar year:

• Apple is up 75.75%.
• Tesla is up 669.05%.
• GM is up 11.24%.
• Alibaba is up 1.01%.