Top 5 Stock Picks of Brad Farber’s Atika Capital

4. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Atika Capital’s Stake Value: $38,059,000

Percentage of Atika Capital’s 13F Portfolio: 2.26%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 238

One of the top stocks from Atika Capital’s Q3 portfolio is Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Brad Farber’s Atika Capital owns 135,000 shares in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), valued at more than $38 million, representing 2.26% of the firm’s stock portfolio. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the Big Five US tech corporations, which was awarded an Outperform rating on November 16 by Credit Suisse analyst Phil Winslow, with a $400 price target. He expects revenue, EPS, and free cash flow to grow over the next five years, stating that current levels of sustained growth and profitability are not completely reflected in consensus estimates or the stock’s valuation.

As of the second quarter of 2021, 238 hedge funds in the database of the exclusive funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), with an approximate stake value of $62.4 billion. British investor Martin Taylor’s hedge fund, Crake Asset Management, is the biggest stakeholder in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), with a total stake value of $57.4 billion at the end of September. 

Here is what Alger has to say about Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q3 2021 investor letter:

“Microsoft Corporation was among the top contributors to performance during the third quarter. Microsoft is a Positive Dynamic Change beneficiary of corporate America’s transformative digitization. Microsoft’s enterprise cloud product, Azure, is rapidly growing and accruing market share. Microsoft reported that Azure grew 51% in the second quarter. This high unit volume growth is a primary driver of the company’s higher share price, but the company’s strong operating execution has enabled margin expansion that has also helped to increase forward earnings estimates. We believe Microsoft’s subscription-based software offerings and cloud computing services have a durable growth profile because they enhance customers’ growth initiatives and help them to diminish costs. Additionally, investors appreciate Microsoft’s strong free cash flow generation and its return of cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases.”