The leading Contributor of Aristotle Capital Value Equity Strategy: Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)

Aristotle Capital Management, LLC, an investment management company, released its “Value Equity Strategy” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. US markets continued their trend in the second quarter and the S&P 500 Index rose 4.28%. “Magnificent 7” drove the rally once again. The composite returned -1.55% gross of fees (‐1.61% net of fees) in the second quarter outperforming the ‐2.17% return of the Russell 1000 Value Index and trailing the 4.28% return of the S&P 500 Index. Security selection led the composite to outperform in the quarter relative to the Russell 1000 Value Index, while allocation effects detracted. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.

Aristotle Capital Value Equity Strategy highlighted stocks like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a multinational software company that develops and supports software, services, devices, and solutions. The one-month return of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was 5.59%, and its shares gained 36.07% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 10, 2024, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock closed at $466.25 per share with a market capitalization of $3.465 trillion.

Aristotle Capital Value Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:

"Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), a leading technology company specializing in software, hardware, cloud services, AI and digital applications, was one of the largest contributors during the quarter. The company continues to execute on a myriad of catalysts across its businesses, particularly within cloud‐based applications like Azure and platform‐based servicessuch as LinkedIn. For Azure, Microsoft detailed previously announced partnerships with NVIDIA and AMD to develop first‐party silicon chips and custom‐ designed infrastructure innovations, including its AI accelerator (Azure Maia) and CPU (Azure Cobalt). These advancements are part of Microsoft’s strategy to enhance AI performance and efficiency within the Azure ecosystem. LinkedIn, which has more than doubled its membership to over one billion in the past four years, is expanding its revenue streams across subscriptions and advertising and increasingly disrupting traditional recruiting and training functions. LinkedIn recently passed $16 billion in run rate annual revenue, which is only ~7% of total Microsoft revenue, but if it were a standalone business, it would be in the top half of S&P 500 constituents! The Azure and LinkedIn examples are just two of many that illustrate Microsoft’s ongoing transformation from an operating system to a total technology solutions provider."

A development team working together to create the next version of Windows.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is in second position on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 293 hedge fund portfolios held Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) at the end of the first quarter which was 302 in the previous quarter. It was a record quarter for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), driven by continued strength in the Microsoft Cloud. The company reported $61.9 billion in revenues, up 17% year over year. While we acknowledge the potential of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

We discussed Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in another article and shared the list of best AI stocks for the second half of 2024. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) ranks at the top of the list. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.