Appleton Partners Inc. MA Has $44.20 Million Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Appleton Partners Inc. MA raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.7% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 119,394 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,943 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 3.1% of Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $44,196,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 642,285 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $239,495,000 after acquiring an additional 23,838 shares during the last quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 17.2% in the first quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 73,118 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $27,066,000 after purchasing an additional 10,750 shares during the last quarter. Dividend Assets Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.1% in the first quarter. Dividend Assets Capital LLC now owns 69,792 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $25,835,000 after buying an additional 2,072 shares during the period. Marietta Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the first quarter. Marietta Investment Partners LLC now owns 52,321 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $19,368,000 after buying an additional 280 shares during the period. Finally, Columbia Bank raised its holdings in Microsoft by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Columbia Bank now owns 42,122 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $15,592,000 after buying an additional 650 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Citigroup raised shares of Microsoft from a “market outperform” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $625.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $502.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $490.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Forty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $557.96.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.8%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $393.82 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The company has a 50-day moving average of $400.28 and a 200 day moving average of $411.30. The firm has a market cap of $2.93 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.44, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.13. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.46 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.71 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, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued 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, August 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.67%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total transaction of $519,111.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was 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 directly owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,928,792.23. This represents a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is still getting support from Wall Street, with some analysts and portfolio managers reiterating buy ratings and arguing that Azure demand, Copilot adoption, and Microsoft 365 tailwinds can support long-term earnings power. Article: Josh Baer Reiterates Buy on Microsoft, Citing AI Leadership, Azure/M365 Budget Tailwinds and Underappreciated Earnings Power
• Positive Sentiment: A CIO survey and other commentary pointed to strong Azure demand at multi-year highs, reinforcing the view that Microsoft’s cloud and AI platform remains a core beneficiary of enterprise spending. Article: Microsoft (MSFT) Stock Surges on Strong Azure Demand in Latest CIO Survey
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft also announced a multi-year AI infrastructure partnership with 3M, which investors viewed as another sign that its Azure ecosystem is expanding into real-world enterprise use cases. Article: Microsoft Stock Rebounds on 3M Optical Infrastructure Alliance
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella criticized Anthropic’s Fable restrictions and pushed for Microsoft to promote its own AI models more aggressively, highlighting the company’s effort to reduce reliance on outside AI vendors. Article: Microsoft’s Nadella rips Anthropic’s Fable restrictions in staff meeting: ‘Doesn’t make sense’
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports that Microsoft is training its sales force to push in-house AI models over OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic suggest a strategic shift toward better control over costs and monetization, but the market is still waiting for proof that this approach boosts returns. Article: Microsoft is reportedly training salespeople to talk down OpenAI and Anthropic
• Negative Sentiment: Several reports said analysts trimmed price targets ahead of earnings, and commentary stressed that investors are increasingly worried Microsoft’s AI spending spree could pressure margins before the payoff becomes visible. Article: Why Microsoft Is Playing a Different AI Game Than Big Tech—and Cash Flow Is the Test
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft is facing added overhang from securities class-action deadlines and allegations tied to Copilot and Azure disclosures, which can keep pressure on sentiment even though these developments are not operational. Article: MSFT UPCOMING DEADLINE : The Gross Law Firm Alerts Microsoft Corporation Stockholders of Securities Class Action

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).