The least owned mega-cap tech stock is Microsoft. The most over-owned stock is this one

Morgan Stanley's recent analysis of large-cap institutional ownership highlights evolving trends within mega-cap technology stocks. The disparity between the institutional ownership of these stocks and their S&P 500 weighting has reduced; however, Microsoft (NASDAQ) remains the most under-owned mega-cap tech stock. In contrast, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ) and Intuit (NASDAQ) rank as the most over-owned, according to Morgan Stanley.

The firm noted that the overall gap between the institutional ownership of mega-cap tech stocks and their S&P 500 representation decreased by 17 basis points (bps) in the third quarter of 2024, narrowing from -113 bps in the second quarter to -96 bps by the end of the third quarter.

Despite this trend, "MSFT remains the most under-owned mega-cap tech stock we track," with an ownership gap of -2.08%. This represents a 34 bps improvement quarter-over-quarter. Other major stocks are also under-owned but to a lesser degree than Microsoft. Apple (NASDAQ), the second most under-owned stock, saw its gap widen by 14 bps in the third quarter to -1.86%.

Nvidia (NASDAQ), meanwhile, experienced the most significant improvement, with its gap narrowing by 72 bps to -1.4%, compared to -2.12% in the previous quarter.

Conversely, Intuit (INTU) and Adobe (NASDAQ) are identified as among the most over-owned stocks, with institutional ownership surpassing their S&P 500 weighting by +0.60% and +0.37%, respectively. Salesforce (NYSE) also appears over-owned, with a +0.32% gap.

Morgan Stanley concluded that while the under-ownership of mega-cap tech stocks has lessened overall, Microsoft’s ongoing under-representation relative to its S&P 500 weighting presents a potential investment opportunity. In contrast, the over-ownership of stocks like Intuit and Adobe could reflect concentrated positioning in these names.

Paraphrasing text from "Reuters" all rights reserved by the original author.