Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): Activist Hedge Fund Buys a Huge Stake

This just in, Jeffrey Ubben’s ValueAct Capital has purchased a $2 billion stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), according to a CNBC report, which is detailed on the following page. At the current price of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s shares, the stake would represent about 64.8 million shares. This is a new position in ValueAct Capital‘s equity portfolio, and would represent the largest position, assuming the value of his Q4 positions have stayed relatively in the ballpark of where they were at the end of the last filing period.

Since ValueAct Capital is an activist fund, we can say that its moves are widely covered in the hedge fund world. Managers of these funds seek to take a brush stroke to an already standing company. To put it simply it’s extremely crucial for everyday investors to pay attention to Jeffrey Ubben’s latest investment into Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).

Though the media, analysts and the blogosphere at large reports on plenty of financial figures, there is one that flies under the radar, so to speak: total sentiment of the world’s best money managers.

Quantitative analysis has demonstrated that retail investors who follow the funds we track can trounce the general indices by an average of eighteen percentage points each year (see the details here).

Focusing in on Microsoft, we can see that 143 other hedge funds were long at the end of last year according to our database. In particular, Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management holding 29,851,815 shares, Jean-Marie Eveillard’s First Eagle Investment Management having 27,303,671 shares, and Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management with 17,774,479 shares, were long in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT); some of the top peers anyone can be in the same vicinity as.

Just as important, we must mention a few other stocks in ValueAct Capital‘s 13F portfolio, in addition to Microsoft.

As follows, they include, Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI), Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE), and Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO), and are listed on the next page:
In Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI), ValueAct held a stake of 28,907,623 shares worth $1.6 billion. At the same time, the fund owns 31,303,362 shares in Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE). The value of the stake in Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) is worth almost $1.2 billion. And the last but not the least, ValueAct owns 15,034,073 shares in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO), the stake being valued at $756.5 million.

Below is the CNBC report:

With this in mind, we’ll keep you in the loop regarding hedge fund investment plays around Microsoft Corporation.
(NASDAQ:MSFT).

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