LFG Wealth Partners LLC Purchases New Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

LFG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 19,700 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $9,527,000. Microsoft comprises 6.1% of LFG Wealth Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Oarsman Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 29,953 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $14,486,000 after buying an additional 1,480 shares during the last quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 1,603,044 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $775,264,000 after buying an additional 17,213 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Global Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Global Advisors LLC now owns 43,360 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $20,970,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. Tobias Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 15.1% during the fourth quarter. Tobias Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 6,998 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,385,000 after buying an additional 919 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych PZU SA boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych PZU SA now owns 81,611 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $39,469,000 after buying an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Microsoft from $641.00 to $646.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, March 9th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $515.00 target price (down from $630.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, April 27th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Microsoft from $540.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, China Renaissance reduced their target price on Microsoft from $630.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 4th. Forty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $561.20.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft launched a new AI agent with pay-as-you-go pricing, a shift that could improve monetization and help the company capture more revenue as customers adopt usage-based AI tools.
• Positive Sentiment: Reports say Microsoft is exploring lower-cost AI model options for Copilot, which could reduce infrastructure costs and improve profitability if implemented successfully.
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s product and AI roadmap continues to attract long-term bulls, with analysts and investors still pointing to the company’s strong enterprise position and AI-driven growth potential.
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft was reported to have held talks for a $3 billion Oracle cloud infrastructure lease, but the deal reportedly collapsed over security and compliance issues, limiting any near-term impact on operations.
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage around a possible Xbox restructuring or spin-off highlights strategic uncertainty in gaming, though it could eventually improve Microsoft’s overall margin profile if the division is separated or reshaped.
• Negative Sentiment: Shareholders filed a class action and securities-fraud investigations were announced over alleged misstatements tied to Azure growth and AI spending, creating legal and reputational overhang for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Microsoft may shut down or restructure Xbox studios add to concerns that the gaming segment is a drag on profitability and could require more restructuring costs.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent commentary also points to heavy AI capital expenditures and softer Azure growth, reinforcing investor worries that Microsoft’s spending is rising faster than its cloud revenue growth.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.5%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $393.83 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.93 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $412.01 and its 200-day moving average is $427.45. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $356.28 and a one year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.Microsoft’s revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.46 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total value of $519,111.08. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total value of $7,145,345.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at $50,928,792.23. The trade was a 12.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft’s product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).