J. L. Bainbridge & Co. Inc. Sells 1,865 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

J. L. Bainbridge & Co. Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 317,102 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,865 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 10.5% of J. L. Bainbridge & Co. Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its biggest position. J. L. Bainbridge & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $117,382,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Boomfish Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Boomfish Wealth Group LLC now owns 9,080 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,361,000 after acquiring an additional 281 shares during the period. Advocate Investing Services LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 9.5% in the 1st quarter. Advocate Investing Services LLC now owns 4,465 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,653,000 after purchasing an additional 386 shares in the last quarter. Midwest Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 9.1% in the first quarter. Midwest Financial Group LLC now owns 10,023 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,710,000 after purchasing an additional 840 shares in the last quarter. Caldwell Trust Co increased its stake in Microsoft by 2.4% during the first quarter. Caldwell Trust Co now owns 76,667 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $28,380,000 after purchasing an additional 1,791 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 1492 Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 14.3% in the first quarter. 1492 Capital Management LLC now owns 927 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $343,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Dbs Bank dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $678.00 to $573.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Microsoft from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $525.00 target price (up from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $595.00 to $680.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Forty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $560.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the transaction, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total value of $1,812,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 47,468 shares in the company, valued at $19,122,009.12. This represents a 8.66% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: DA Davidson reiterated a Buy rating and a $550 price target on Microsoft, suggesting meaningful upside from current levels. Benzinga article
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple reports said Azure cloud growth remains strong and Microsoft’s AI business is still expanding, with analysts highlighting cloud share gains and AI monetization as key drivers for a future rebound. Blockonomi article
• Positive Sentiment: Several bullish pieces argued Microsoft may be one of the most mispriced AI stocks, pointing to its large OpenAI stake, strong enterprise demand, and the potential for Copilot and “orchestration” tools to become more lucrative over time. Barron’s article
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft also drew attention for a new AI-focused business unit and for merging its consumer and enterprise Copilot apps, which could improve product clarity but is still in the execution phase. Motley Fool article
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft said it is cutting about 4,800 jobs globally, with roughly 3,200 roles hit in Xbox, signaling a broad restructuring and raising concerns about weaker gaming economics. Reuters article
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are also reacting to a securities fraud class action tied to alleged Copilot and Azure disclosure issues, adding legal overhang after prior stock weakness. PR Newswire article

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT traded up $6.23 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $392.97. 5,140,060 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 37,726,043. The company has a market capitalization of $2.92 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.13. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $406.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $417.46. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $349.20 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced 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 firm had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.46 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Microsoft 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).