2. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 279
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the biggest technology companies in the world that develops productivity and business suite applications, cloud products, and personal computing products.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) reported revenue worth $64.7 billion in FQ4 2024, up by 15% year-over-year. During the same quarter, Microsoft Cloud had $36.8 billion in quarterly revenue, up by 21% year-over-year, and posted record bookings.
The company is a leading investor in artificial intelligence technology. Its AI-backed cloud service, Azure OpenAI service witnessed an increase in customer base by 60%, reaching 60,000 clients in the second quarter of 2024.
Previously in July, Microsoft and Lumen Technologies signed a partnership to enhance and modernize Lumen’s workloads to Microsoft Azure. Earlier in August, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) partnered with Palantir Technologies, a data software company, to deploy Palantir’s suite of products in Microsoft Azure.
In the past few weeks, the company initiated investments in other countries, signed new partnerships, and nurtured existing strategic partnerships. On October 8, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced that Microsoft Azure is the first cloud to be running on NVIDIA’s Blackwell system backed by AI systems, further strengthening its position in AI.
Overall, Microsoft Corporation’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) outlook toward AI coupled with its strong cloud ecosystem makes it one of the best stocks to buy and hold for the next decade. In the second quarter, 279 hedge funds held positions in Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and their stakes amounted to $89.068 billion.
Baron Opportunity Fund stated the following regarding Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is the world’s largest software and cloud computing company. Microsoft was traditionally known for its Windows and Office products, but over the last five years it has built a $135 billion run-rate cloud business, including its Azure cloud infrastructure service and its Office 365 and Dynamics 365 cloud-delivered applications. The stock contributed to performance because of continued strong operating results and investor enthusiasm regarding Microsoft’s leadership across the secular megatrends of AI and cloud computing. Recent business momentum continued to show evidence of the strength and attractiveness of Microsoft’s product portfolio among its customer set: (1) Azure OpenAI – its suite of AI services – is now used by 65% of the Fortune 100 and contributed 7% of Azure revenue (an annualized run rate of $5.2 billion); (2) GitHub Copilot – its AI code writing service – is bending the productivity curve for developers (reports of 40%- plus improvements in developer efficiency) and now has 1.8 million paid subscribers, with growth accelerating to over 35% quarter-over-quarter; and (3) Copilot Studio – its AI application service that makes it easier for anyone to build an application, automate a workflow, or create a Copilot using natural language. 30,000 organizations across every industry have used Copilot Studio to customize Copilot for Microsoft 365 or build their own, up 175% quarter-over-quarter. In the March quarter, Microsoft again reported better-than-expected financial results, highlighted by Microsoft Cloud growing 23% year-over-year, with the fastest commercial bookings in six quarters, and Azure accelerating to 31% constant currency growth, up from 28% in the previous quarter. June quarter guidance came in-line with consensus, but the company provided higher guidance for the most important segment, Intelligent Cloud, on the back of continued strong trends across Azure and Azure OpenAI. We remain confident that Microsoft is one of the best-positioned companies across the overlapping software, cloud computing, and AI landscapes.”
