Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is Smith Salley Wealth Management’s 3rd Largest Position

Smith Salley Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 241,109 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,778 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 4.5% of Smith Salley Wealth Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Smith Salley Wealth Management’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $89,251,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Bernzott Capital Advisors bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $36,000. Fairway Wealth LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 287.0% during the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines 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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial cut shares of Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $400.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $575.00 to $505.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Forty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $560.86.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, 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 transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,928,792.23. The trade was a 12.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total value of $1,812,780.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 47,468 shares in the company, valued at $19,122,009.12. The trade was a 8.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $352.83 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $411.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $421.81. 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 $2.62 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.00, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.11. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $349.20 and a 52-week high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.46 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business 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. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 21.67%.

Microsoft Company 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).