Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. decreased its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 631,105 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 20,194 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 3.8% of Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $305,215,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. IRON Financial LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 23.2% during the 3rd quarter. IRON Financial LLC now owns 6,510 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,372,000 after purchasing an additional 1,225 shares during the period. PMG Family Office LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth $828,000. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 70,175 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,347,000 after purchasing an additional 1,572 shares during the period. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. raised its position in Microsoft by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 949,901 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $493,860,000 after buying an additional 9,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management raised its position in Microsoft by 15.7% during the 4th 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. This trade represents a 2.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the firm’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 transaction, 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on MSFT shares. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. DZ Bank restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $550.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $641.00 to $646.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Thirty-nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $560.88.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is expected to showcase new homegrown AI models at Build, including a coding model that could improve GitHub Copilot and support future developer adoption. Microsoft to release new coding model next week, the Information reports
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street commentary is turning more bullish on Microsoft’s AI revenue potential, with Morgan Stanley and HSBC both suggesting the market may be underestimating future upside from Azure, Copilot, and the Anthropic relationship. Is Wall Street underestimating MSFT AI revenue potential? Morgan Stanley weighs in
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft also benefited from a broad tech rally, with AI and software stocks leading the market higher late in the session. Sector Update: Tech Stocks Rise Late Afternoon
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft secured a five-year $9.69 billion Pentagon software deal that consolidates government licensing and reinforces its entrenched enterprise and public-sector position. Pentagon awards Microsoft $9.7 billion deal in bid to cut costs, end license sprawl
• Neutral Sentiment: Some articles also note Microsoft’s heavy AI spending and the risk of capital misallocation across the sector, which could keep valuation debates active even as the stock trends higher. Peter Schiff: The $1 Trillion AI CapEx Bubble Is Hiding a Massive Capital Misallocation

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $426.99 on Friday. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average price of $400.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $434.51. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $356.28 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The company has a market capitalization of $3.17 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.10.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. 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).