Investor Enthusiasm Over AI Pushed Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) in Q2

Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Global Fund” second-quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the Ariel Global fund traded +3.32% higher, trailing the +6.18% return of the MSCI ACWI Index and outperforming the MSCI ACWI Value Index’s +2.98% gain. The fund’s lack of exposure to Materials and Energy was the greatest source of positive attribution in the quarter, while Communication Services holdings and choices within Information Technology detracted. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2023.

Ariel Global Fund highlighted stocks like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the second quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a multinational software company that develops, and licenses software, services, devices, and solutions. On September 12, 2023, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock closed at $331.77 per share. One-month return of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was 3.08%, and its shares gained 31.66% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has a market capitalization of $2.465 trillion.

Ariel Global Fund made the following comment about Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q2 2023 investor letter:

“Enterprise software provider, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), was the top contributor in the quarter driven by investor enthusiasm around Artificial Intelligence (AI). Microsoft is well positioned as this new technology advances given its large investment in Open AI, the parent company of ChatGPT. Our thesis is anchored on the company driving value creation by capitalizing on a broad and deep set of opportunities, most notably within Azure, its hybrid cloud infrastructure. The platform continues to demonstrate share gains and strong multi-year purchase intent as enterprises transition to end-to-end, secure, cloud-based platforms. Looking ahead, we continue to like Microsoft’s solid fundamentals, competitive positioning and long-term business outlook.”

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Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) holds the first position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 300 hedge fund portfolios held Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) at the end of second quarter which was 289 in the previous quarter.

We discussed Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in another article and shared the list of most conservative tech companies. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.