Caldwell Trust Co Boosts Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Caldwell Trust Co boosted its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.4% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 76,667 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,791 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 2.5% of Caldwell Trust Co’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Caldwell Trust Co’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $28,380,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rochester Wealth Strategies LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 2.9% during the third quarter. Rochester Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 700 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $363,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% in the 2nd 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. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC now owns 431 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $223,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Fischer Investment Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Fischer Investment Strategies LLC now owns 697 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $337,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pollock Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Pollock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,805 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,453,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and bullish commentators continue to argue that Microsoft’s AI and Azure businesses can offset near-term pain, with reports highlighting strong cloud spending, Azure market-share gains, and the company’s “orchestration” opportunity in enterprise AI. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: DA Davidson reaffirmed a Buy rating and a $550 price target, reinforcing the view that MSFT still has meaningful upside if AI monetization and cloud growth continue. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is also getting attention for product-streamlining moves, including plans to consolidate Copilot into a unified app and strengthen enterprise AI workflows, which could improve focus but won’t move results immediately. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: There was also a separate report that a new federal bill could require AI-generated content to be labeled, which may affect Microsoft’s AI products in the future but does not appear to be an immediate earnings driver. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: The biggest drag is the Xbox reset: Microsoft is cutting thousands of gaming jobs, spinning off studios, and acknowledging the business is “not healthy,” which raises concerns about execution and profitability in gaming. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are also worrying that Microsoft’s aggressive AI infrastructure spending and higher memory costs could pressure margins, even as the company tries to show that the cuts improve efficiency. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Ongoing class-action and securities-fraud headlines are adding overhang, keeping some investors cautious while legal claims tied to prior AI disclosures work through the courts. Article Title

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $386.74 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.02, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a 50 day moving average of $406.14 and a 200 day moving average of $417.46. 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 Corporation has a 1-year low of $349.20 and a 1-year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $82.89 billion for 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.46 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict 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, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.67%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of Microsoft 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 owned 47,468 shares in the company, valued at $19,122,009.12. This trade represents a 8.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $50,928,792.23. This represents a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $400.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $575.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Microsoft to a “buy” rating and set a $485.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, DZ Bank restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Forty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $560.75.

About Microsoft

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).