Big tech names like Microsoft, Apple and Amazon don’t get enough love from active portfolio managers. But that could be a good thing for its shares and future investors, Morgan Stanley said. “The 2Q ownership data makes us more positive on the leading technology platforms; MSFT, AAPL, AMZN and GOOGL & META. These stocks continue to be owned relative to their weighting in the S&P 500,” analyst Eric Woodring said in a note to clients on Tuesday. Tech stocks fell as investors shunned growth positions in the face of rising inflation and higher interest rates. That put the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 information technology sector down 24 percent and 27 percent from their 52-week highs. A review of Morgan Stanley’s latest 13F data seems to support that trend, showing that active managers hold fewer large-cap tech stocks compared to their S&P 500 benchmarks. However, the bank said that this could be positive in the future. “A quantitative analysis of this historical data shows that, after adjusting for average market cap and earnings shocks, there is a statistically significant relationship between lower equity ownership relative to the S&P 500 and future stock performance,” Woodring wrote. “This indicates that, on average, stocks have less active ownership than the market, and conversely, stocks experience technical drag.” Microsoft was the most owned of the big tech stocks, followed by Apple, Nvidia, Amazon and Alphabet, the data showed. On the upside, Intuit has reigned as the most owned stock since last quarter and historically compared to the S&P 500. At the end of the second quarter, the spread among actively managed portfolios with large technology holdings was negative 69 points compared to the weighted S&P 500. However, that gap fell behind other tech stocks and their S&P 500 weighted average, the bank said. Even though Apple’s distribution fell in the most recent quarter, it still boasts the widest gap among the biggest tech stocks after Microsoft. “For reference, the spread between Apple institutional ownership and the S&P 500 benchmark over the last 3 years is currently 101bps versus an average of 125bps,” Woodring wrote. “We believe this largely reflects investor concerns about deteriorating demand for consumer electronics.” The iPhone maker’s shares are down 11 percent this year, down from a peak of 13 percent. — CNBC’s Michael Blue contributed reporting.
