1. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Gotham Asset Management’s Stake Value: $65,722,000
Dividend Yield as of March 25: 0.82%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 262
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the Big Five American technology firms. Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management owns 195,414 Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares as per the 13F filings for Q4 2021. The stake is worth $65.7 million, representing 2.12% of the total portfolio.
On March 15, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) declared a quarterly dividend of $0.62 per share. The dividend will be distributed on June 9, to shareholders of record on May 19. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) yields 0.82% as of March 25. The company’s EPS is expected to reach $20, owing to the public cloud market that fetches hundreds of billions of dollars, in addition to multi-year deals and secular growth trends.
Jefferies analyst Brent Thill reiterated a Buy rating and $400 price target on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares on March 16. He believes that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s emerging Power Platform has “an outsized impact via a halo effect” on the entire product suite. He believes the Power Platform can be the “next growth engine” for the company.
Among the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey at the end of Q4 2021, 262 funds reported placing long bets on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), compared to 250 funds in the earlier quarter. Fisher Asset Management owns the largest stake in the company, with approximately 27 million shares worth over $9 billion.
Here is what Saturna Capital Amana Funds has to say about Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“Only two companies remain from 2010’s top 10 list: Apple and Microsoft. Going back to 2000, only Microsoft remains. We expect that Microsoft will maintain its position as the dominant global provider of personal and business software, while growing its cloud business and potentially being a key provider of augmented and mixed hardware and software.
US Technology companies have been the equity market’s biggest winners in recent years. Because of the Amana Income Fund’s objective of current income, many of these zero- or low-dividend companies do not suit the Fund’s mandate. One that does — Microsoft, which returned 46.03% for 2021 — was the Fund’s second biggest contributor to returns during the year. While Technology no doubt underpins much of the current economy and its future potential, Tech stocks have also benefited from low inflation, globalization, and valuations that are near historic highs. With globalization backsliding and inflation worries escalating, we believe companies in other industries with strong financial positions, competitive advantages, strong management, attractive dividend yields, and reasonable valuations can offer investors diversification in the context of equity markets increasingly concentrated in a handful of very large Technology firms.”
You can also take a look at 10 Semiconductor Stocks to Buy Today According to Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and 10 Consumer Staples Stocks To Buy According To Billionaire Ray Dalio.
