Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Top 5 Stock Picks

2. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Marshall and Wace’s Stake Value: $286,045,000
Percentage of Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s 13F Portfolio: 1.29%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 238

On September 14, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced a quarterly dividend of $0.62 per share, up $0.06, or 11%, from the previous quarter. On September 13, Infosys Limited (NYSE:INFY) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) collaborated to accelerate Ausgrid’s cloud transformation journey. Together they will also establish Ausgrid as a digital utility.

The hedge fund chaired by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace holds 1.06 million shares in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) worth over $286.05 million. There were 238 hedge funds in our database that held stakes in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the second quarter of 2021, compared to 251 funds in the previous quarter.

Baron Opportunity Fund, in its second-quarter 2021 investor letter, highlighted a few stocks, and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of them. Here is what the fund said: 

“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 was a top contributor in the period because it trades at reasonable free cash flow and earnings valuations, has cloud and digital transformation tailwinds at its back, reported a solid March quarter, and beat Street expectations by a wide margin. Microsoft’s results continued to be strong across the board, with Azure cloud computing revenues up 46% in constantcurrency (“cc”) terms and commercial cloud bookings growth of 38% cc, the best in years. Microsoft also reported robust profitability growth, with operating income expanding 31% and GAAP earnings up 45%. We believe the company is well positioned for continued solid growth and profitability through market share gains as more companies look to transform and digitize their businesses as they move operations to the cloud.”