We recently published a list of Cathie Wood’s 11 Favorite AI Stocks. Since Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) ranks 11th on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
Cathie Wood’s flagship fund is continuing to face steep losses amid a broader pullback in technology stocks. Wood’s flagship fund ARK Innovation ETF (NYSEARCA:ARKK) is down about 18% so far this year and has lost about 75% of its value since hitting its peak in 2021. However, the latest data shows that the innovation-focused investor bought the dip on tech stocks after the latest selloff that shook financial markets globally.
Investors have pulled about $2.2 billion from ARK funds in 2024. The fund is on track to post its worst year of investor exodus since 2014. But Cathie Wood is doubling down on her innovation bets and is hopeful the upcoming rate cuts will be positive for the stock market.
Cathie Wood Says “Something Is Changing” and the Fed is Now on “High Alert”
Talking about the market situation, Cathie Wood said in a latest video on her YouTube channel that the recent selloff shows the market is going through a “cathartic” phase and “something is changing.”
“I do believe that the Fed now is on high alert because the stock market seemed to be encouraging the Fed to hold tight, higher for longer, make sure that the inflation was out of the system.”
Cathie Wood said that corporations are now in a weaker position amid high rates and they will initiate layoffs to cut costs and increase productivity. This weak employment situation could encourage the Federal Reserve to start cutting rates, according to Wood.
“Interest rates coming down should be very positive for the equity markets, but they will not arrest a recession very quickly. In fact, if consumers and businesses know that interest rates and maybe prices will be coming down, what will they do? They will wait.”
Cathie Wood’s ARK has posted its latest stock holdings data as of the end of the June quarter. For this article we scanned the fund’s latest portfolio and picked 11 AI stocks it has positions in. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Cathie Wood’s Latest Stake Value: $15,279,433
Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares recently fell following its latest quarterly results which showed the company’s Cloud business growth was lower than expected. For the ongoing quarter, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) expects revenue in the range of $63.8B and $64.8B, compared to the $65.07B estimate. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) Azure revenue is expected to grow by 28% and 29% year over year.
But what about AI? While Microsoft does not mention specific AI numbers, analysts believe Copilot is already playing a key role in growth at several segments of the company. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) Office’s commercial customer sales soared to $48 billion, significantly up from last year’s 10% growth, likely driven by Copilot Pro subscriptions. Office for individual users also saw a boost, with sales reaching $6.2 billion, a 4% increase compared to last year’s 2% growth, indicating accelerating growth from Copilot integration. Dynamics ERP and CRM software sales hit $6.3 billion, up 19%, surpassing last year’s 16% growth. This uptick is likely due to customers switching to Dynamics for the Copilot integration in the Dynamics Contact Center platform, which provides automated customer service chatbots and significant cost reductions. Bing sales jumped 3% year over year as more users switched to the search engine from Google Search, thanks to AI features.
While Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) expenses are expected to remain elevated, its investments are working and would bear fruit in the long term. The stock is down about 11% over the past month. It trades 26x next fiscal year’s earnings. MSFT could be an attractive buy on the dip for long-term investors.
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“The top absolute contributors were Alphabet, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Amazon. Microsoft was another top absolute contributor in the quarter, speaking to a growing appreciation for all the ways the company has an opportunity to monetize GenAI, be it in its Office suite or Azure cloud business. In the latter case, it contributed 7% to Azure’s revenue growth in the most recent quarter. We believe Microsoft remains a highly advantaged business with many secular tailwinds driving durable growth for the foreseeable future, even at its immense scale.”
Overall, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) ranks 11th on Insider Monkey’s list titled Cathie Wood’s 11 Favorite AI Stocks. While we acknowledge the potential of Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), 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 more promising than MSFT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.