Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 160,365 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 4,991 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 4.6% of Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $77,556,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% during the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying 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. Bayforest Capital Ltd bought a new position in Microsoft in the 3rd quarter worth about $38,000. Fairway Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 287.0% in the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $44,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total value of $519,111.08. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at $18,922,874.02. This trade represents a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total value 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 represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $575.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $515.00 target price (down from $630.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $392.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday. Thirty-nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $560.88.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft and Nvidia teased “a new era of PC,” with reports pointing to new Surface hardware and a possible AI-focused chip announcement at Computex, which could refresh the Windows/PC upgrade cycle. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Microsoft will unveil a new coding model and other in-house AI tools at next week’s Build conference reinforce the company’s AI monetization story and support sentiment around GitHub Copilot and Azure demand. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s latest earnings backdrop remains solid, with revenue growth of 18.3% and better-than-expected EPS, helping investors justify the stock’s premium valuation.
• Positive Sentiment: Several bullish writeups and analyst commentary say MSFT still has room to run because Azure, M365 cloud, and AI revenue are expanding faster than the broader software market. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is also drawing attention from investors, fund managers, and even congressional buyers, which supports the stock’s defensive-growth reputation but does not change fundamentals on its own.
• Negative Sentiment: A TechCrunch report says Microsoft is facing backlash for threatening a security researcher over unpatched bugs and code disclosure, adding some reputational noise ahead of Build. Article Title

Microsoft Trading Up 5.4%

MSFT stock opened at $450.24 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $402.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $434.62. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $356.28 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.Microsoft’s revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.46 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 21st will be given a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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).