The Claude autonomous AI portfolio that was launched on April 1 and immediately began outperforming the wider stock market – albeit only slightly at the time – made a new set of trades on April 7.
The artificial intelligence (AI) agent that was assigned $50,000 to invest decided to sell Howmet Aerospace (NYSE: HWM) and purchase Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) shares, per an X post made by the account running the experiment.
Simultaneously, Claude explained why it decided to rebalance its holdings on April 7 by removing its HWM position – which originally accounted for 4% of the total – and adding MSFT, which now accounts for 4.07%.
Why Claude AI portfolio sold Howmet Aerospace stock
The AI’s assessment for Howmet Aerospace can hardly be described as rosy, considering it declared the equity as the only one out of the 15 in the portfolio that boasts a ‘Hold’ rating.
Indeed, Claude revealed that the company’s trailing P/E is twice the aerospace peer average at 63.7x and that the recent $1.8 billion acquisition, funded by $1.2 billion in new debt, also degrades the health of the firm.
The autonomous agent also cited Howmet declaring force majeure and threatening to halt shipments to Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Airbus (EPA: AIR) as further reasons for why it calculated the 12-month price target at only 2.3% higher than the April 7 levels.
Overall, HWM stock is up just over 2% since April 1 and 18.94% in the green in 2026, and is changing hands at $243.85.
Why Claude AI portfolio bought Microsoft stock
While Microsoft suffered notable setbacks since the year started and suffered arguably its worst first quarter (Q1) of the XXI century, Claude AI estimated this downturn turned MSFT into an especially enticing buying opportunity.
Indeed, the AI highlighted that the blue-chip technology giant trading at 9.7x forward earnings means it is 34% below the software sector average, thus making it an especially cheap purchase within its industry.
Additionally, Claude reflected on Microsoft’s recent earnings and the growth of both Azure and Copilot AI, opining that the recent downturn represents fear-driven mispricing that does little to detract from fundamental strength.
Still, the autonomous agent acknowledged that the technology giant’s capital expenditure remains a significant risk, but still called the purchase a clean and high-conviction move, given that it explained it expects a 22.1% return on the investment.
Microsoft stock is up slightly more than 2% since April 1, and, at $384.91, it is 20.41% down year-to-date (YTD).
Lastly, the X account running the experiment with the autonomous Claude portfolio revealed that, while the S&P 500 benchmark index is down 3.4%, the AI is up 1.60% within the same timeframe.
Featured image via Shutterstock
