5 Safe Stocks To Buy According To Hedge Funds

2. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 238

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), an American multinational tech company, has been a strong dividend player in the financial market. The company’s annual dividend stands at $2.24 per share, yielding 0.74%. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has increased its dividend by 31.45% in the past three years, with a 28.11% dividend payout ratio. The company stands second on our list of safe stocks to buy according to hedge funds.

Microsoft Teams, the company’s communication platform gained, over 75 million users in 2020 during the lockdown, compared with 20 million in 2019. The figure has reached 145 million this year. In fiscal Q4 2021, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) posted an EPS of $2.17, beating the estimates by $0.25. According to analysts, the EPS of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is expected to grow by 7.7% in 2021.

Recently, Morgan Stanley lifted its price target on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to $331, while keeping an Overweight rating on the shares. Of the 873 elite funds tracked by Insider Monkey, 238 funds reported having stakes in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in Q2, compared with 251 in the previous quarter. These stakes are valued at $62.4 billion.

Baron Opportunity Fund released its second-quarter 2021 investor letter and mentioned Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in it. 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.”