5 Best Stocks To Buy For The Rest of 2021

3. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 238

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has a track record of 12 years of consistent dividend growth and pays an annual dividend of $2.24 per share, yielding 0.67%.

On September 28, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced the opening of its own Windows store to the third-party app storefronts, integrating Amazon and Epic Games Store in Microsoft Store. In fiscal Q4 2021, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) reported revenue of $46.2 billion, presenting a 21.5% year-over-year growth.

In September, Barclays lifted its price target on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to $345 and kept an ‘Overweight’ rating on the shares.

As of Q2 2021, 238 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey have positions in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), valued at $6.24 billion. The number of hedge funds having stakes in the company stood at 251 in the previous quarter. Crake Asset Management is the company’s leading shareholder, with shares worth over $109 billion. 

Baron Opportunity Fund mentioned Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its second-quarter 2021 investor letter. Here is what the firm has to say: 

“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.”