Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is General Pension Society PZU Joint Stock Co’s 9th Largest Position

General Pension Society PZU Joint Stock Co lessened its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 56.2% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 32,500 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 41,700 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 3.0% of General Pension Society PZU Joint Stock Co’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. General Pension Society PZU Joint Stock Co’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $12,031,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its stake 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 worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Bernzott Capital Advisors purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Fairway Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 287.0% during the fourth quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new position in Microsoft during the second quarter worth $50,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MSFT. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, April 24th. President Capital lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $575.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $400.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Forty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $559.84.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $384.93 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The firm has a market cap of $2.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.91, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.13. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $401.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $412.68. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $349.20 and a 12-month 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, beating 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 net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.46 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.71 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be paid 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 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.67%.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentators continue to view Microsoft as a high-quality AI and cloud name, with some arguing the stock looks cheaper after the recent decline.
• Positive Sentiment: Upcoming earnings later this month could provide a catalyst if Azure growth and AI-related demand remain strong.
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft remains a major beneficiary of AI infrastructure spending, but investors are waiting for clearer proof that those investments will translate into faster profit growth.
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s 4,800-job reduction and Xbox restructuring suggest ongoing cost pressure and restructuring challenges.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple securities class-action alerts tied to alleged AI/Copilot disclosure issues are adding legal and reputational risk.
• Negative Sentiment: Concerns about Microsoft’s OpenAI partnership and AI product execution are creating uncertainty around the company’s AI narrative.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total value of $1,812,780.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 47,468 shares in the company, valued at $19,122,009.12. This trade represents a 8.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,928,792.23. This represents a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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).