Billionaire DE Shaw’s Latest Portfolio: Top 5 Stock Picks

3. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

DE Shaw’s Stake Value: $1,041,996,000

Percentage of DE Shaw’s 13F Portfolio: 1.22%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 258

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), a big tech company, develops software, services, devices, and solutions across the globe. The company is based in Redmond, Washington.

On July 27, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives reiterated an Outperform rating on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares. The analyst also placed a $320 price target on the stock.

This August, Ives also mentioned that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was among his firm’s top three tech stock picks going to the end of 2022. The analyst commented that the company’s Azure cloud computing platform was strong and remained so going into 2023. The platform can be a continuing source of profit for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the coming years.

Out of 895 hedge funds tracked in the second quarter, 258 hedge funds held stakes in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Their total stake value was $56 billion.

L1 Capital International, an investment management company, mentioned Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its second quarter 2022 investor letter. Here’s what they said:

“Saving the best for last, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is the most advantageously positioned business globally for long term success. Powered by sustained growth drivers including cloud computing, security, data analytics, collaboration, artificial intelligence, automation, business productivity, low-code programming and gaming, amongst others.

No company is ‘macro immune’ as Microsoft’s management has recently explicitly noted, but the business is defensive.

Despite its immense size, Microsoft has more than doubled revenue over the past 5 years and will approach US$200 billion in financial year 2022, while EPS will have compounded at over 20% over this period. To be clear we do not expect this rate of growth to continue, but we do expect Microsoft to deliver healthy growth in revenue, earnings and cashflow despite challenging economic conditions. Meanwhile Microsoft retains a AAA-rated balance sheet, one of only two companies globally to hold the highest credit rating. We expect dividends and buybacks to consistently increase as Microsoft has limited other sensible ways to deploy its excess cashflow, particularly in an environment where proposed acquisitions will be under intense regulatory scrutiny…” (Click here to read the full text)