Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stock Holdings Lifted by Strong Tower Advisory Services

Strong Tower Advisory Services lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.7% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 38,363 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,739 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 2.7% of Strong Tower Advisory Services’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Strong Tower Advisory Services’ holdings in Microsoft were worth $14,201,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% during the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,000,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 23,097 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,735,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 3.5%

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $352.83 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $349.20 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The firm has a market cap of $2.62 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a 50-day moving average of $411.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $421.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.27.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The business 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 firm earned $3.46 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a $0.91 dividend. 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 1.0%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 21.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on MSFT shares. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price 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. Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $595.00 to $680.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $575.00 to $505.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $675.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Forty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $560.86.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft continues to secure new enterprise AI and cloud partnerships, including expanded collaborations around Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure, which support its long-term AI monetization story.
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s 20-year power agreement tied to its Texas data-center buildout helps de-risk AI infrastructure expansion and supports cloud capacity growth.
• Positive Sentiment: ICON plc selected Microsoft as a preferred technology partner, reinforcing demand for Microsoft’s AI and productivity tools in healthcare and enterprise workflows.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and market commentators remain split: some still view Microsoft as a high-quality AI platform with strong long-term upside, while others say the stock has been oversold and may be approaching a valuation reset.
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft was also named in multiple new or ongoing lawsuits and class-action notices tied to alleged securities issues and copyright claims involving AI training data, adding headline risk but no immediate operating impact yet.
• Negative Sentiment: Stifel cut its price target on Microsoft and said Wall Street’s gross-margin expectations may be too high as Azure growth and AI capex pressure cloud profitability.
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s Xbox price hikes and repeated gaming price increases suggest hardware cost inflation is squeezing a business line that had already been weakening.
• Negative Sentiment: Investor concern over heavy AI spending, shrinking free cash flow, and lower cloud-margin expectations is weighing on sentiment and helping explain why MSFT is falling.
• Negative Sentiment: EU regulators said Microsoft Azure may face stricter “gatekeeper” rules under the Digital Markets Act, raising the possibility of more compliance burden and oversight in Europe.
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s quantum-computing claims also came under renewed criticism, which adds to skepticism around some of its more speculative AI-related initiatives.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,122,009.12. The trade was a 8.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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. This represents a 12.30% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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).