Ken Fisher’s Top 5 Growth Stock Picks

2. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Fisher Asset Management’s Stake Value:$7,369,578,000

Percentage of Fisher Asset Management’s 13F Portfolio: 5.21%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 258

On September 20, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced that its board of directors has increased its quarterly dividend by 10% to $0.68 per share, up from the prior dividend of $0.62 per share. The dividend is payable on December 8 to investors of record on November 17. As of September 21, the stock is offering a forward dividend yield of 1.02% and has free cash flows of $65 billion.

Wall Street is bullish on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). On August 11, Guggenheim analyst John DiFucci started coverage of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) with a Neutral rating and a $292 price target. On September 21, Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss reiterated his $354 price target and buy-side Overweight rating on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).

Insider Monkey found 258 hedge funds long Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) at the close of Q2 2022. These hedge funds held collective stakes of $56 billion in the company. Of those, $7.36 billion were of Fisher Asset Management. The investment covers 5.21% of Ken Fisher’s 13F portfolio.

Here is what Baron Funds had to say about Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its second-quarter 2022 investor letter:

“Shares of Microsoft Corporation, 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.

As discussed above, we continue to believe Microsoft remains a durable and growing business as companies across all industries look to digitally transform, taking advantage of the continuously expanding solution set Microsoft has to offer.”