Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is Sunbelt Securities Inc.’s 4th Largest Position

Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.7% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 78,521 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,784 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 1.8% of Sunbelt Securities Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Sunbelt Securities Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $29,066,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Bernzott Capital Advisors purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Fairway Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 287.0% in the fourth quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth about $50,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Microsoft from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore set a $528.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating and set a $510.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Forty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $560.27.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total transaction of $4,878,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 100,447 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,007,086.83. This trade represents a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total value of $2,388,068.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at $21,188,276.96. This represents a 10.13% 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 sold 37,310 shares of company stock valued at $17,256,219. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $496.88 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $349.20 and a 12 month high of $553.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $409.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $407.88. The stock has a market cap of $3.69 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.11.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. The company had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%.Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.65 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm 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 dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.27%.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman reaffirmed his bullish Azure thesis, arguing that continued capacity investment and Microsoft 365’s embedded customer base can support high-teens earnings growth. Microsoft Stock Rises as Ackman Reaffirms Azure Bet
• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its Microsoft price target to $625, citing accelerating Copilot adoption and infrastructure growth. Wells Fargo also maintained an overweight rating and lifted its target to $700, reinforcing the view that the stock’s AI-driven recovery has further upside. JPMorgan Raises Microsoft Price Target
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft began gradually combining its consumer and enterprise Copilot applications into a unified AI platform. The planned “super app” could improve user adoption, cross-selling and Microsoft’s competitive position against ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. Microsoft Unifies Consumer and Enterprise Copilot
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft accepted IREN’s first AI data-center deployment under a $9.7 billion cloud agreement. The milestone supports Azure’s ability to secure additional computing capacity as AI infrastructure demand remains strong. IREN Hands Microsoft Its First AI Cloud Deployment
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is reportedly closing or restructuring numerous China offices and joint ventures, while retaining an Azure-linked presence. The move may reduce geopolitical exposure but could also limit access to the Chinese market. Microsoft Retreats in China
• Negative Sentiment: A report said Microsoft plans to cut carbon-removal purchases while AI-related emissions rise, creating potential reputational and environmental concerns. Microsoft Carbon Removal Purchases Report

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).