ClearBridge recently filed its 13F with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the March 31 reporting period. The firm was founded in 1982, functioning as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Legg Mason Inc. In its latest 13F, ClearBridge disclosed a public equity portfolio valued at $5.71 billion. Its portfolio mainly consists of finance, technology, and healthcare companies. From the fund’s 13F, we’ve pick its top three tech stocks to dissect, including Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). We’re going to discuss each of these tech stocks in this piece.
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Insider Monkey tracks the latest moves of hedge funds as well as monitor their holdings to find actionable patterns and profit from them. Our research has shown that hedge funds’ large-cap stock picks historically delivered a monthly alpha of six basis points between 1999 and 2012, however this 50-stock portfolio also underperformed the market by seven basis points per month. On the other hand, the top 15 small-cap stocks had an average monthly return of 127 basis points per month during the three month holding period that begins two months after the end of each quarter. We have been sharing the stock picks of our small-cap hedge fund strategy since the end of August 2012 and our small-cap strategy has returned over 144% since then, beating the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by over 82 percentage points over this 2.5+ year period (read the details here).
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Let’s get back to ClearBridge’s top tech stocks. At the top of the list is Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), in which the investor inched up its position to 4.40 million shares, valued at $179.0 million. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) recently announced that it is making changes to its leadership team, including the exit of Nokia’s former CEO Stephen Elop from Microsoft. Elop will be stepping down as executive vice president for Devices & Services. Elop’s group will become part of the Windows and Devices Group, which will be led by Terry Myerson, who is Microsoft’s executive vice president of Operating Systems and the Devices Group Team. For the first quarter of 2015, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) reported net income of $4.99 billion, down from $5.66 billion in the same period last year. However, revenue for the quarter jumped to $21.73 billion, compared to $20.40 billion in the same quarter last year. Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) have risen by 11.81% during the past 12 months. Jeffrey Ubben’s ValueAct Capital is one of the largest shareholders of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) among the investors we track, with ownership of 75.27 million shares.
Next up is Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), in which ClearBridge slightly decreased its share ownership to 5.38 million shares, worth $147.9 million. Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) recently conducted a $5 billion senior unsecured notes offering. The company plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including to return capital to shareholders pursuant to its capital allocation strategy through the repurchase of shares of its common stock and the payment of cash dividends. Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is one of the tech companies getting ready for battle in the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT) space. A new study by research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) indicates the worldwide IoT market could be worth $1.7 trillion by 2020. For its third quarter of 2015, ended April 25, Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) posted net income of $2.4 billion, versus $2.2 billion in the same period last year. Revenue was $12.1 billion, up from $11.5 billion year-over-year. Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)’s stock has increased by 17.53% during the past year. Another investor of the company is Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management, which holds 48.98 million shares as of March 31.
Lastly is Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), in which ClearBridge disclosed owning 357,832 shares, representing a 3% decrease in its position during the first quarter. The stake is valued at $133.1 million. For the first quarter of 2015, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) reported a 15% increase in net sales to $22.72 billion, compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company booked a net loss of $57 million in the quarter, versus net income of $108 million in the same quarter last year. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s stock has been performing well, gaining 33.3% during the past year. Other large shareholders of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) include Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, and Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management, holding 2.47 million shares and 2.23 million shares respectively, as of the end of the first quarter.
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