5 Best 52-Week Low Stocks To Buy Now

1. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 258

1-Year Share Price Decline: 26.5%

Topping the list of the best stocks near 52-week lows is Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which hit a 1-year low on November 3. As with Amazon, Microsoft’s cloud growth continued to slow during its Q1 of FY23, with Intelligent Cloud revenue growing by 20% year-over-year. That was more than double the growth of any of Microsoft’s other segments, which highlights how important cloud growth is when it comes to adding some sizzle to the company’s top-line growth.

Microsoft’s proposed takeover of gaming giant Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI), which is expected to help drive growth in its gaming business, is now being probed by the EU, which is concerned that the latter’s popular games like Call of Duty could be blocked from appearing on competing consoles and PCs.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was the most popular stock among hedge funds at the end of Q2, not to mention having $20 billion more in smart money investment than any other stock. Hedge fund ownership of the stock has more than tripled since 2013, making big gains in Q4 2015, Q1 2018, and Q1 2020. And once funds go long MSFT, they tend to stay in it for the long-term. There hasn’t been a single quarter with a greater than 10% selloff of hedge funds’ positions in over nine years. Chris Hohn’s TCI Fund Management had 16% 13F exposure to Microsoft on June 30, owning a 19.6 million share position worth over $5.04 billion.

Despite the challenges it’s facing in the PC business, Baron Funds remains bullish on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s ability to drive stable growth and expand its margins, as detailed in the fund’s Q3 2022 investor letter:

“Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) pulled back with the overall software industry on the back of macroeconomic issues, including inflation concerns and rising interest rates. The company reported another strong quarter, highlighted by total revenues growing 16% on a constant currency basis and Microsoft Cloud revenues, now 48% of total sales, growing 33%, with Azure (Microsoft’s infrastructure cloud) growing 46%. These results were driven by strong demand for large commercial cloud contracts, as more businesses are standardizing on Microsoft’s platform and the company is signing larger and longer deals. Initial fiscal year 2023 guidance calls for healthy double-digit revenue and operating income growth. Both foreign exchange and personal computer headwinds were contemplated in the guidance and have continued to worsen, but we have conviction in the company’s strong competitive positioning, durable growth drivers, and margin expansion opportunity over the mid- to long term.”

For more of the latest stock picks worth considering for your portfolio, check out 15 Biggest Ecommerce companies in the US and 22 Biggest Economies in the World in 2022.

Disclosure: None.

Follow Insider Monkey on Twitter