Mar Vista Investment Partners, LLC, an investment management company, released the “Strategic Growth Strategy” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The U.S. stock market had another successful time in the third quarter of 2024, with the S&P 500® Index growing for the fourth consecutive quarter, which hasn’t happened since Q4 2021. This year’s first three quarters have seen the best performance for the S&P 500® Index since 1997. However, it was still slightly below the remarkable start of 2023. In the third quarter, the strategy returned +5.49% net-of-fees compared to +3.19% and +5.89% returns for the Russell 1000 Growth Index and the S&P 500 Index. With interest rates that are not exceptionally high by historical standards, the market seems to be starting an easing cycle, which could encourage additional increases. Kindly check the top 5 stocks of the strategy to know its best picks in 2024.
Mar Vista Strategic Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the third 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 4.74%, and its shares gained 15.69% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On December 2, 2024, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock closed at $430.98 per share with a market capitalization of $3.204 trillion.
Mar Vista Strategic Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock was pressured in the quarter as investors fretted over rising capex as Microsoft invests heavily in the burgeoning generative AI market. Investors are concerned about the rising capital intensity of the business and the uncertain return on that investment. We continue to believe that Microsoft occupies a strong competitive and strategic position and that it is poised to capture market share as businesses, both large and small, navigate the transition to a digital-first landscape and embrace generative AI-driven productivity tools. The company’s commanding presence in the enterprise arena, combined with its comprehensive product portfolio encompassing Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), establishes it as a crucial provider of IT solutions for companies of all scales. Microsoft is effectively executing its strategy in a sizable market by offering a roadmap for digital transformation and adoption of cutting-edge, AI-driven solutions, such as ChatGPT and its suite of Copilot applications, which enhance productivity and reduce costs. Consequently, we anticipate that Microsoft’s solutions should exhibit resilience even in a more challenging macroeconomic environment, supporting low double-digit growth in intrinsic value within our investment horizon.”
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, 279 hedge fund portfolios held Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) at the end of the third quarter which was 279 in the previous quarter. In the September quarter, Microsoft Corporation’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) revenue was $65.6 billion, up 16% year-over-year and earnings per share was $3.30, representing a 10% increase compared to prior year’s quarter. 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.
In another article, we discussed Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and shared the list of Wells Fargo’s top technology stocks that can beat the flagship S&P index over the next 12 months. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.