3,329 Shares in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Purchased by J.M. Arbour LLC

J.M. Arbour LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 3,329 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $1,610,000. Microsoft accounts for approximately 1.6% of J.M. Arbour LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. IRON Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 23.2% in the 3rd quarter. IRON Financial LLC now owns 6,510 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,372,000 after purchasing an additional 1,225 shares during the last quarter. PMG Family Office LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $828,000. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 70,175 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,347,000 after purchasing an additional 1,572 shares during the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 949,901 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $493,860,000 after purchasing an additional 9,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Weaver Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 14.0% in the 3rd quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 18,340 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,499,000 after purchasing an additional 2,247 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 recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. DZ Bank reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Microsoft from $575.00 to $550.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Rothschild & Co Redburn reduced their price target on Microsoft from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane reduced their target price on Microsoft from $556.00 to $555.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $562.69.

Microsoft News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft continues to draw bullish analyst commentary, with multiple firms raising or reaffirming price targets after the company’s strong earnings beat and Azure growth, reinforcing the view that core business momentum remains solid.
• Positive Sentiment: New reports suggest Microsoft’s AI ecosystem is still gaining traction, including partner milestones tied to Copilot and AI cloud services, which supports the case for continued enterprise adoption.
• Positive Sentiment: Several hedge funds and asset managers have recently added to Microsoft positions, indicating that some large investors still view MSFT as a long-term AI and cloud leader.
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft partnered with CAISI and AISI to advance AI model testing standards, a policy-and-safety focused update that may help its enterprise credibility but is unlikely to move the stock on its own.
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports that Microsoft is considering adjustments to its renewable-energy targets and offering voluntary retirement packages reflect ongoing cost and infrastructure pressures, but these items are more strategic than immediately material to revenue.
• Negative Sentiment: Market attention is centered on TCI’s reduced stake and the broader “AI anxiety” trade, with investors worried Microsoft may be spending heavily on AI infrastructure before the payoff becomes clearer.
• Negative Sentiment: Some commentary also points to temporary margin pressure from elevated AI and data-center spending, which could weigh on near-term profitability even as growth remains strong.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares in the company, valued at $56,486,322.16. This trade represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John W. Stanton bought 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $397.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,986,750.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 83,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,339,651.75. This represents a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of MSFT opened at $415.00 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.70, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.10. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $396.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $445.39. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $356.28 and a 52 week high of $555.45.

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 for 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 for the quarter was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.46 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be given a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.67%.

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).