Top 5 Stock Picks of Billionaire Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital

3. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is the long-running investment of Lone Pine Capital. The hedge fund has raised its stake by 3% in the September quarter. It is the third-largest stock holding of Tiger cub’s hedge fund, accounting for 5.84% of the overall portfolio.

The share price of Microsoft underperformed in the last three months, but the technology giant has topped the broader market index in the last twelve months. Moreover, the company has returned significant cash to investors in the form of dividends.

RiverPark Capital was also right about betting on MSFT  early on. Here is what they said 1.5 years ago:

“Microsoft: Microsoft shares were our next top contributor driven by the company’s solid fiscal third quarter results, as well as the strong rebound in technology shares during the month (especially for those firms, like MSFT, that are not currently targets of antitrust investigations ). For its fiscal third quarter (ending March), MSFT’s Commercial Cloud revenue grew 41% yearover-year to $10 billion, generating more than 30% of Microsoft’s total revenue. The company’s two other segments, Productivity and Business Processes and More Personal Computing, grew a combined 14% as overall company revenue grew 16% and Non-GAAP EPS grew 20%.

Microsoft has, we believe, entered a second chapter of market-leading growth that will drive the company’s revenue and profits for years to come. Microsoft’s Cloud Infrastructure offering is in the fastest growing segment of the cloud services market (including software-as-a-service (SaaS)), a market that is characterized by recurring revenues, strong pricing, high levels of customer engagement and high margins. The overall Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) industry is growing more than 30% per year and is forecast to reach $100 billion of revenues by 2021. We believe that cloud-based services can become the company’s largest revenue and earnings producer and expect Microsoft to generate significant and growing free cash flow ($11 billion last quarter, up 19% year-over-year). The company should deliver at least mid-to-high teens EPS growth, with upside from deploying its $134 billion cash balance ($7 billion was returned to shareholders in the quarter through dividends and share buybacks). We trimmed our position on strength, and Microsoft remains a top five position in in the Fund.”