Druckenmiller’s Prediction and His 5 Defensive Stock Picks

1. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 258     

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) develops, licenses, supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. According to the latest filings, Duquesne Capital owned over 740,700 shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) at the end of June 2022 2022 worth $190 million, representing 13.76% of the portfolio. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the top defensive stock picks of Stanley Druckenmiller. 

On July 27, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives maintained an Outperform rating on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock and lowered the price target to $320 from $340, noting that the metrics around cloud and commercial bookings looked strong for the firm.  

At the end of the second quarter of 2022, 258 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $56 billion in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), compared to 259 in the previous quarter worth $66 billion.

In its Q2 2022 investor letter, Baron Funds, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), a leading global provider of software solutions, declined 16.6% in the quarter along with the broader software group as well as due to growing concerns of a potential macro-driven slowdown. This is despite the company posting strong quarterly financial results and successfully absorbing headwinds from the war in Ukraine. The company had 21% revenue growth, 23% operating income growth, and 35% growth in Microsoft Cloud (all year-over-year in constant currency), which now represents 47% of total revenues. (read more…)

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