Apple billionaire investor Carl Icahn dumps every one of his shares in the company

Icahn said Tim Cook 'seemed sort of sad to hear that' when he told him

Icahn, who acquired a stake in Apple in 2013, has been one of Apple’s most vocal investors

One of Apple’s most prominent investors, has sold his entire stake in the company in a second blow for the tech giant in less than week.

Carl Icahn suggested he made roughly $2 billion off the Apple trade, only two days after Apple reported its first decline since 2003.

“We no longer have a position in Apple,” Icahn said on Thursday.

Icahn said Tim Cook, Apple chief executive, “seemed sort of sad to hear that”, when he told him on the phone.

Icahn, who acquired a stake in Apple in 2013, has been one of Apple’s most vocal investors. He reportedly owned 45.8 million Apple shares at the end of last year and said buying into the company was a “no brainer”.

In an open letter to Tim Cook in October 2014, Icahn described Apple as “dramatically undervalued” and called on Cook to “convince” the board of directors to purchase “more” and “sooner”. Icahn argued the stock is trading at a 50 per cent discount and should be trading at $203 per share, instead of the $100 region it was trading in at the time.

But Icahn’s position has changed dramatically in two years. His announcement during a TV interview with CNBC did not make things easier for Apple, which closed down more than 3 per cent at $94.83 on Thursday.

(Bloomberg (Bloomberg)

Apple is a “great company” and Tim Cook is “doing a great job”, Icahn said but he added that China’s economic slowdown and the country’s “prohibitive attitude” is too unpredictable.

“You worry a little bit — and maybe more than a little — about China's attitude," Icahn said, later adding that the Chinese government could "come in and make it very difficult for Apple to sell there. You can do pretty much what you want there."

Apple has had a tough week as it revealed that is revenue dropped from the first time in 13 years on Tuesday.

iPhone sales, which make up almost three quarters of the company’s overall sales, were hit in the first quarter of 2016. The company sold 10 million fewer devices compared to this time last year. Apple is facing competition from brands like Samsung and Huawei.

Cook said it had been a “challenging quarter” due to the “tough” comparisons of product sales with last year.