Lifeworks Advisors LLC Grows Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Lifeworks Advisors LLC grew its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 27.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 23,663 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,066 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 1.1% of Lifeworks Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. Lifeworks Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $8,759,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Del Sette Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 3.3% during the first quarter. Del Sette Capital Management LLC now owns 946 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $350,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 79,262 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,340,000 after buying an additional 1,659 shares in the last quarter. Avion Wealth lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 20.4% in the 1st quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 5,610 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,076,000 after acquiring an additional 951 shares during the last quarter. Persium Advisors LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 29.2% in the first quarter. Persium Advisors LLC now owns 3,212 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,189,000 after acquiring an additional 725 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Advisory Partners LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.6% during the first quarter. Financial Advisory Partners LLC now owns 11,520 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,264,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total transaction of $1,812,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 47,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,122,009.12. This represents a 8.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total value 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 $18,922,874.02. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Microsoft from $595.00 to $680.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday. Arete Research increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $730.00 to $870.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $600.00 target price for the company. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Microsoft from a “market outperform” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Forty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $554.73.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.9%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $389.10 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a market cap of $2.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.16, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.13. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $397.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $406.99. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $349.20 and a 52-week high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.21. The company 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%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.46 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.67%.

Microsoft News Summary

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 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).