Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stock Holdings Boosted by Global Assets Advisory LLC

Global Assets Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 21.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 12,782 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,253 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 1.1% of Global Assets Advisory LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Global Assets Advisory LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,732,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Taylor Securities Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $2,616,000. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management increased its position in Microsoft by 15.7% during the fourth quarter. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management now owns 12,492 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,041,000 after buying an additional 1,698 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2,332.1% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 6,746,017 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,262,509,000 after buying an additional 6,468,645 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors raised its holdings in Microsoft by 22.1% during the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 272,424 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $131,750,000 after buying an additional 49,371 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Overbrook Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Overbrook Management Corp now owns 87,535 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $42,334,000 after buying an additional 2,384 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at $50,928,792.23. This represents a 12.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total transaction of $519,111.08. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. This trade represents a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $570.00 to $525.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 6th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $515.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Microsoft from $540.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. CLSA initiated coverage on Microsoft in a report on Monday, July 20th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $535.00 price target on the stock. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Forty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $554.73.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft launched Project Perception, an agentic security platform designed to detect and respond to AI-powered cyberattacks in real time. The company also introduced its first in-house cybersecurity model, MAI-Cyber-1-Flash. The products could strengthen Microsoft’s position in the growing enterprise cybersecurity market and create additional demand for Azure and security software. Microsoft launches its first cybersecurity model and a new agentic cybersecurity system
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors continue to report healthy Azure and broader cloud demand, with AI demand reportedly exceeding available capacity. UBS maintained a Buy rating, while Guggenheim reaffirmed its Buy rating with a $586 price target. Consensus expectations for Wednesday call for approximately $87.42 billion in revenue and $4.21 in earnings per share. Microsoft faces AI capex scrutiny as it prepares to report Q4 results
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s expanded partnership with Mistral and its work on custom chips support the company’s strategy of making Azure a leading platform for enterprise AI workloads. Investors view continued AI adoption and cloud monetization as potential catalysts for the earnings report.
• Neutral Sentiment: The immediate focus is Microsoft’s planned roughly $190 billion in annual capital spending, a reported 61% increase. The investment could support long-term Azure growth, but the market wants evidence that cloud revenue and AI demand are growing fast enough to justify the cost. Options markets imply a potentially large post-earnings move of about 7.24%. Microsoft Plans $190 Billion of Capital Spending This Year
• Negative Sentiment: Investors have recently been less willing to reward strong technology earnings because of concerns about AI spending returns, heavy debt issuance across the AI ecosystem, and margin pressure. Microsoft’s elevated spending could therefore weigh on the stock if Azure growth or forward guidance disappoints.
• Negative Sentiment: Several law firms publicized securities class-action lawsuits alleging investor harm and misleading disclosures related to Microsoft’s Copilot positioning, data silos, and interoperability. The claims are an overhang, although their near-term financial impact is uncertain. Microsoft investor class-action announcement

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $389.10 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $2.89 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.16, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $397.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $406.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $349.20 and a twelve month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The company had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.46 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business 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 dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 21.67%.

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).