Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is Captrust Financial Advisors’ 5th Largest Position

Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,598,199 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 35,582 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 2.7% of Captrust Financial Advisors’ portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Captrust Financial Advisors’ holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,345,737,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 51.3% in the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the third quarter worth about $38,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $44,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter worth about $49,000. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at about $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.9%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $391.79 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.39. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $422.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $473.71. The firm has a market cap of $2.91 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.50, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.28. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.The firm had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.23 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 22.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. This trade represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $397.35 per share, with a total value of $1,986,750.00. Following the purchase, the director 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 position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Company unifies Copilot commercial and consumer teams to simplify product roadmaps and boost adoption — a move management says will improve coherence across enterprise and consumer experiences. Microsoft unifies Copilot commercial and consumer product teams in unit rejig (Reuters)
• Positive Sentiment: Product updates expand Microsoft’s AI footprint (Copilot, Agent 365, Foundry ecosystem) — these releases and partnerships aim to drive enterprise spending and stickier Microsoft 365 monetization. Microsoft Expands AI Strategy with Copilot and Agent 365 Updates (Yahoo Finance)
• Positive Sentiment: Talent and product hires: Microsoft acquired the Cove team (AI collaboration board) and other engineering talent to accelerate collaboration features — a low-cost way to shore up product capabilities. Microsoft hires the team of Sequoia-backed AI collaboration platform, Cove (TechCrunch)
• Positive Sentiment: Partnership R&D: Microsoft Research collaborated with MediaTek on microLED-powered optical cables to improve data-center power efficiency — supports Azure infrastructure competitiveness. MediaTek Develops Active Optical Cable Technology with Microsoft Research (PR Newswire)
• Neutral Sentiment: Enterprise AI UX battle: Microsoft, Google and Anthropic are embedding AI into spreadsheets (Excel vs. Sheets), a trend that could expand enterprise AI use but raises competition and margin questions. Microsoft, Google and Anthropic Channel Enterprise AI Use With Spreadsheets (PYMNTS)
• Negative Sentiment: Legal overhang: Microsoft is reportedly weighing legal action against Amazon and OpenAI over a reported $50B cloud deal — potential litigation and a deteriorating OpenAI relationship add strategic and execution risk for MSFT’s exclusive-cloud positioning. Microsoft weighs legal action over $50 billion Amazon-OpenAI cloud deal (Reuters)
• Negative Sentiment: AI execution concerns and leadership shuffle: Coverage noting product gaps (competition from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic) and the reassignment of Mustafa Suleyman have sparked debate about near-term AI competitiveness despite the broader reorg. That uncertainty is likely contributing to selling pressure. Microsoft reshuffles AI team to catch up on Copilot and model building (FT)

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. Citigroup decreased their target price on Microsoft from $660.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Wedbush reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $575.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Melius Research set a $430.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $650.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.95.

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).