5 Best Vanguard Stocks to Buy Now

2. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 262

Percentage of Vanguard’s Stake: 5.98%

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is an American firm that is categorized as one of the Big Five US tech giants. Vanguard reported owning about 164 million Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares in the March 2022 quarter, worth $50.5 billion, representing 5.98% of the total holdings. 

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) reported its financial results for the first fiscal quarter of 2022, posting earnings per share of $2.22, beating estimates by $0.02. The revenue climbed 18.35% year-over-year to $49.36 billion, topping market consensus by $311.18 million. 

On April 27, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives maintained an Outperform rating on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) but lowered the firm’s price target on the shares to $340 from $375 to reflect a lower multiple following Q1 results. The analyst noted that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) delivered a robust cloud guidance “for the ages” that will pacify investors and was a bullish data point for the company, and importantly the entire tech sector moving forward. 

Among the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey, 262 funds were long Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) at the end of Q4 2021, up from 250 funds in the preceding quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke, and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital is a significant shareholder of the company, with a position worth $5.7 billion. 

Here is what Baron Opportunity Fund has to say about Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“Shares of Microsoft Corporation, a cloud-software leader and provider of software productivity tools and infrastructure, rose during the quarter, following a strong earnings report highlighting solid demand for its broad product stack and continued momentum migrating its business to the cloud. Microsoft’s results continued to be strong across the board, with total revenue growing 20% in constant currency, beating Street estimates by 3%; an acceleration in Commercial Cloud revenue to 34% constant-currency growth; operating margins expanding to just under 45%; earnings growth of 23%; and free cash flow growth of 30%. We believe the company is positioned to deliver 13% to 15% organic growth over the next three years, underpinned by total addressable market expansion and continued market share gains across its disruptive cloud product portfolio.”