Renaissance Technologies Is Behind Apple Inc. (AAPL) All The Way. What About Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)?

According to the filing, the investment team also had a large stake in International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) at the beginning of July. IBM has been one of Warren Buffett’s largest positions for some time, with his Berkshire Hathaway having it as its 3rd largest publicly traded pick at the end of Q2 (find Buffett’s favorite stocks). The company has seen declines in both sales and net income from their levels a year ago, but Wall Street analysts believe that business will recover next year and so the forward earnings multiple is only 10. We’d prefer to see more stable financials, but at that price IBM might still be worth looking into.

Renaissance owned 5.8 million shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which has seesawed recently on the good news that CEO Steve Ballmer is planning to leave the company in the near term (Ballmer is rather unpopular among investors) and the less good news that Microsoft will acquire a portion of Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK)’s assets. The trailing P/E here is 12; Microsoft, like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), does feature a large cash hoard and it’s possible that the company’s new CEO will be more aggressive in returning more cash to shareholders than Ballmer has been. Billionaire Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management is another major shareholder in Microsoft (research Fisher’s stock picks).

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.