Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is Oxbow Advisors LLC’s 8th Largest Position

Oxbow Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 21.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 61,575 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 16,576 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 1.9% of Oxbow Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Oxbow Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $22,793,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Taylor Securities Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $2,616,000. PMG Family Office LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter worth about $828,000. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 15.7% during the fourth quarter. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management now owns 12,492 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,041,000 after buying an additional 1,698 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 2,332.1% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 6,746,017 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,262,509,000 after buying an additional 6,468,645 shares during the last quarter. Finally, World Investment Advisors boosted its position in Microsoft by 22.1% during the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 272,424 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $131,750,000 after acquiring an additional 49,371 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,928,792.23. This trade represents a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 47,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,122,009.12. This trade represents a 8.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361 in the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Rothschild & Co Redburn cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Bank of America assumed coverage on Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $500.00 price objective for the company. Truist Financial lowered their target price on Microsoft from $675.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, DZ Bank reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Forty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $557.96.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain broadly bullish ahead of Microsoft’s July 29 earnings report, with several firms still rating the stock Buy/Outperform even after trimming price targets. Microsoft Earnings Preview: Copilot, AI Spending and Margins Are in Focus
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is being viewed as a top AI vendor, and Citi highlighted it as one of the leading players in the space, reinforcing the company’s AI leadership narrative. Citi Finds Microsoft (MSFT) as One of the Top AI Vendors
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft announced a strategic partnership with 3M to advance AI data center infrastructure and enterprise transformation, a sign of continued demand for its cloud and AI ecosystem. 3M and Microsoft announce strategic partnership to advance AI data center infrastructure and enterprise transformation
• Positive Sentiment: CEO Satya Nadella’s push to emphasize Microsoft’s in-house AI models and lower-cost enterprise offerings suggests a more aggressive competitive strategy versus OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. Microsoft is reportedly training salespeople to talk down OpenAI and Anthropic

Microsoft Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $401.10 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $400.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $411.43. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The company has a market capitalization of $2.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $82.89 billion for 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.46 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.71 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 is 21.67%.

About Microsoft

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).