Madison Investments, an investment advisor, released its “Madison Sustainable Equity Fund” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. All equity classes experienced good results in the third quarter. During the quarter, equity markets ended on a high note, with the S&P 500 achieving a 5.89% increase, bringing the full-year performance to 22.08%. The Value outperformed growth and the market broadened outside the mega-cap tech stocks during the quarter. Against this backdrop, Madison Sustainable Equity Fund (Class Y) outperformed the S&P 500 in the quarter. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2024.
Madison Sustainable Equity Fund highlighted stocks like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a multinational software company that develops and supports software, services, devices, and solutions. The one-month return of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was -2.75%, and its shares gained 11.44% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On November 18, 2024, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock closed at $415.76 per share with a market capitalization of $3.091 trillion.
Madison Sustainable Equity Fund stated the following regarding Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Alphabet Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Qualcomm Incorporated, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Apple Inc. were the largest detractors. Microsoft has also given back some performance after a strong first half move. Microsoft’s fiscal fourth quarter was slightly below expectations as Azure growth came in below expectations. Commentary remains quite bullish about the AI opportunity and Microsoft continues to point to supply constraints. We continue to see Microsoft as one of the better positioned companies to benefit from the proliferation of AI with their expansive enterprise position.
In early August, Microsoft held a call to discuss how to advance AI sustainably and responsibly with its Chief Sustainability Officer, its Chief Responsible AI Officer, and the CVP of Cloud Operations and Innovation. Each leader detailed the company’s progress in their respective departments, noting the company’s commitments to carbon negativity, water positivity, and zero waste by 2030, which were initially set in 2020. The methods to achieve these goals include sustainable design and construction for its data centers, transitioning to more carbon free power sources, using AI to enable existing transmission lines to bring on new RE capacity faster, replenish more water than it consumes, and engaging its suppliers to encourage them to adopt more sustainable practices. The company is aligned with the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and its four key functions: maintain a system for governing AI risks, documenting the risks associated with AI, measuring the likelihood and impact of AI risks, and implementing safeguards to protect against AI risks.”
A development team working together to create the next version of Windows.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is in second position on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 279 hedge fund portfolios held Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) at the end of the third quarter which was 279 in the previous quarter. In the September quarter, Microsoft Corporation’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) revenue was $65.6 billion, up 16% year-over-year and earnings per share was $3.30, representing a 10% increase compared to prior year’s quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we discussed Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and shared the list of stocks that could 10x over the next 3 years. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2024 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.