5 Most Widely Held Stocks by Individuals

1. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 269     

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. 

On October 26, BMO Capital analyst Keith Bachman maintained an Outperform rating on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock and lowered the price target to $270 from $295, highlighting the company’s first quarter results included many sources of disappointment, with Azure growth coming in a point below estimates and a call for a 5-point slowdown in second quarter being broader than the predicted 3-point fall.

At the end of the third quarter of 2022, 269 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $61.2 billion in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), compared to 258 in the previous quarter worth $56 billion.

In its Q2 2022 investor letter, Baron Funds, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Shares of Microsoft Corporation, a leading global provider of software solutions, declined 16.6% in the quarter along with the broader software group as well as due to growing concerns of a potential macro-driven slowdown. This is despite the company posting strong quarterly financial results and successfully absorbing headwinds from the war in Ukraine. The company had 21% revenue growth, 23% operating income growth, and 35% growth in Microsoft Cloud (all year-over-year in constant currency), which now represents 47% of total revenues. (read more…) 

You can also take a peek at 11 Best Penny Stocks To Buy and 12 Best Tech Stocks for Long-Term Growth.