Davidson Trust Co. Sells 7,160 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Davidson Trust Co. lowered its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 14.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 42,948 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 7,160 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 8.7% of Davidson Trust Co.’s holdings, making the stock its largest holding. Davidson Trust Co.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $20,771,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Busey Bank lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Busey Bank now owns 487,636 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $235,831,000 after purchasing an additional 5,129 shares in the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 962,834 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $465,627,000 after acquiring an additional 12,933 shares during the last quarter. TriaGen Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. TriaGen Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,444 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,116,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 12,682 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,133,000 after buying an additional 275 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tred Avon Family Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Tred Avon Family Wealth LLC now owns 25,256 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $12,214,000 after buying an additional 2,513 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wedbush reaffirmed Microsoft as an outperform and kept a $575 price target, while Phillip Securities upgraded the stock to buy with a $485 target, underscoring Wall Street’s continued optimism about Microsoft’s long-term AI and cloud growth. Benzinga report
• Positive Sentiment: Several articles highlighted Microsoft as a top long-term or “battered” software stock, with some investors seeing the pullback as an opportunity to buy a dominant franchise at a more attractive valuation. 247WallSt article
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is reportedly looking at startup acquisitions to reduce dependence on OpenAI, which could be a strategic positive over time but also signals that the current partnership is not viewed as fully secure. Reuters article
• Neutral Sentiment: LinkedIn plans to cut about 5% of its workforce as part of a restructuring, which may support margins but also reflects caution across Microsoft’s broader business. Reuters/Invezz article
• Negative Sentiment: Ongoing testimony in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI is putting Microsoft’s role in OpenAI under a microscope, reviving concerns about governance, reliance on OpenAI, and possible legal or reputational overhang. CNBC article
• Negative Sentiment: Some investors are worried that Microsoft’s AI capex is rising faster than the market can justify, with articles warning that the company must prove a timely return on its AI investments to sustain the stock’s premium. Motley Fool article

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. DZ Bank reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Evercore reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $580.00 to $510.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Daiwa Securities Group reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Microsoft from $595.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on Microsoft from $600.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Thirty-nine 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 stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $560.88.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.6%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $405.21 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $356.28 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a market capitalization of $3.01 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $397.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $442.33.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 21st will be issued a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $397.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,986,750.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 83,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,339,651.75. The trade was a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total transaction of $5,045,695.92. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $56,486,322.16. This trade represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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).