With a nearly century-long history of picking stocks that will be winners over the long term, $164 billion investment firm Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) has some big-name names in its portfolio.
After a brief decline in the stock market that saw major technology companies lose billions in value, savvy investors may have taken the opportunity to add shares of large investment firms to their portfolios.
Motivated by this, Finbold decided to analyze two of Morgan Stanley’s largest holdings, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), and see how they will perform in the coming months.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)
With a share of 4.25 percent of the total MS portfolio, technology giant Microsoft is Morgan Stanley’s largest equity holding, according to its latest 13F filing on August 14.
Looking at the performance so far in 2024, MSFT shares are up 12.83% year-to-date. The previous five trading days brought a gain of 2.79%, which was offset by a loss of 0.61% in the last trading session on August 19, leaving the price per share at $418.47.
Microsoft’s strong presence in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud servers continues to drive strong earnings growth each quarter.
In addition, by working with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Azure can expand its capabilities and improve its services.
In addition, Microsoft’s growing presence in the video game industry, which came with the merging of PC and Xbox into one gaming platform via Microsoft Pass, was recently bolstered by its acquisition by Activision Blizzard.
The company’s fourth-quarter earnings report, released on July 30, showed that it posted revenue of $245.1 billion and net income of $88.1 billion.
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)
The second largest holding in Morgan Stanley’s portfolio belongs to the famous iPhone manufacturer Apple at 3.77 percent.
The year 2024 was somewhat turbulent, as it spent much of the year in the red and only saw a positive turnaround after the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Since then, the company has been up 21.77% year-on-year.
Additionally, AAPL shares have gained 4.60% in the past five trading days, while the last trading session on Friday saw a positive progress of 0.59% and closing price of $226.05 per share.
The Cupertino giant recently announced its partnership with OpenAI to bring AI to the latest iPhones and improve the overall user experience.
In particular, the latest Q3 report released on August 1st showed a beaten earnings performance. Earnings per share (EPS) of $1.40 exceeded expectations of $1.35, while revenue was $85.78 billion compared to the expected $84.53 billion.
Experts and Apple CEO Tim Cook expect sales to continue to rise in the coming quarters as the iPhone 16 and the updated product lineup for this year are launched.
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