American Trust Sells 6,387 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

American Trust decreased its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 17.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 30,235 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 6,387 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 1.0% of American Trust’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. American Trust’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,192,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. S. R. Schill & Associates grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. S. R. Schill & Associates now owns 6,789 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,513,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares during the period. Droms Strauss Advisors Inc. MO ADV grew its position in Microsoft by 0.8% during the first quarter. Droms Strauss Advisors Inc. MO ADV now owns 7,859 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,909,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the period. Sachetta LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 8.9% during the first quarter. Sachetta LLC now owns 4,806 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,779,000 after buying an additional 393 shares during the period. WealthShield Partners LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 8.0% during the first quarter. WealthShield Partners LLC now owns 34,440 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $12,749,000 after buying an additional 2,541 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Darwin Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 25.9% during the first quarter. Darwin Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,298 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,923,000 after buying an additional 2,734 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. China Renaissance decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $650.00 to $625.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Wolfe Research reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $570.00 to $525.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 6th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Microsoft from a “market outperform” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Forty-two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $555.40.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $381.70 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.28. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $349.20 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $2.84 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $398.21 and a 200-day moving average of $408.08.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.46 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current 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 given a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 21.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. This trade represents a 2.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $19,122,009.12. The trade was a 8.66% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft joined 25 tech companies in urging U.S. policymakers not to impose broad restrictions on open-weight and open-source AI models, a stance that supports its broader AI ecosystem strategy and could help preserve flexibility for future product development. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft also backed a coalition letter with Nvidia, Meta, and other firms arguing that open-weight AI is important for U.S. leadership, reinforcing investor confidence that the company remains a major AI platform player rather than being boxed into one model provider. Business Insider article
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s expanded Databricks partnership extends a key cloud/data-AI relationship through the 2030s, which should help Azure adoption and strengthen long-term enterprise demand for Microsoft’s cloud services. TipRanks article
• Neutral Sentiment: Several previews ahead of Microsoft’s July 29 earnings report say the big investor focus will be FY2027 CapEx guidance and Azure growth, with analysts expecting strong results but worrying that AI infrastructure spending could weigh on free cash flow and margins. MarketBeat article
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms issued class-action alerts and deadline reminders tied to Microsoft securities-fraud claims, including allegations related to Copilot disclosures, which adds headline risk and may keep some investors cautious into earnings. GlobeNewswire article
• Negative Sentiment: Broader tech weakness tied to AI spending fears also weighed on Microsoft, as investors sold mega-cap names after seeing massive capital outlays across the sector and questioning near-term returns on AI investment. Fox Business article

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).