Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the Microsoft Build developer conference in Seattle on May 10, 2017.

Goldman Sachs says the stocks most owned by hedge funds have soundly outperformed the market over the last 17 years.

The bank's hedge fund VIP (very important positions) list consists of the 50 stocks that "appear most often among the top 10 holdings of fundamentally driven hedge fund portfolios" for the June quarter. Goldman looked at the positions of 830 hedge funds with total long and short stock holdings of $2.3 trillion.

The firm said the basket has lagged the S&P 500 by 1.18 percentage points this year through Aug. 17, but hedge funds are still counting on these stocks for strong returns the rest of the year.