Portus Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 4,822 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $2,497,000. Microsoft comprises about 2.5% of Portus Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest holding.
A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Centaurus Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the third quarter valued at $37,822,000. First Affirmative Financial Network increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network now owns 13,041 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,754,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. Caerus Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 150.1% during the 3rd quarter. Caerus Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,126 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,173,000 after purchasing an additional 3,677 shares during the last quarter. First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA now owns 22,731 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $11,773,000 after purchasing an additional 1,160 shares during the period. Finally, Faithward Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Faithward Advisors LLC now owns 7,884 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,084,000 after purchasing an additional 261 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft
In other news, Director John W. Stanton bought 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $397.35 per share, with a total value of $1,986,750.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 83,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,339,651.75. This represents a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total transaction of $5,045,695.92. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 137,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. The trade was a 8.20% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Microsoft News Summary
- Positive Sentiment: Company unifies Copilot commercial and consumer teams to simplify product roadmaps and boost adoption — a move management says will improve coherence across enterprise and consumer experiences. Microsoft unifies Copilot commercial and consumer product teams in unit rejig (Reuters)
- Positive Sentiment: Product updates expand Microsoft’s AI footprint (Copilot, Agent 365, Foundry ecosystem) — these releases and partnerships aim to drive enterprise spending and stickier Microsoft 365 monetization. Microsoft Expands AI Strategy with Copilot and Agent 365 Updates (Yahoo Finance)
- Positive Sentiment: Talent and product hires: Microsoft acquired the Cove team (AI collaboration board) and other engineering talent to accelerate collaboration features — a low-cost way to shore up product capabilities. Microsoft hires the team of Sequoia-backed AI collaboration platform, Cove (TechCrunch)
- Positive Sentiment: Partnership R&D: Microsoft Research collaborated with MediaTek on microLED-powered optical cables to improve data-center power efficiency — supports Azure infrastructure competitiveness. MediaTek Develops Active Optical Cable Technology with Microsoft Research (PR Newswire)
- Neutral Sentiment: Enterprise AI UX battle: Microsoft, Google and Anthropic are embedding AI into spreadsheets (Excel vs. Sheets), a trend that could expand enterprise AI use but raises competition and margin questions. Microsoft, Google and Anthropic Channel Enterprise AI Use With Spreadsheets (PYMNTS)
- Negative Sentiment: Legal overhang: Microsoft is reportedly weighing legal action against Amazon and OpenAI over a reported $50B cloud deal — potential litigation and a deteriorating OpenAI relationship add strategic and execution risk for MSFT’s exclusive-cloud positioning. Microsoft weighs legal action over $50 billion Amazon-OpenAI cloud deal (Reuters)
- Negative Sentiment: AI execution concerns and leadership shuffle: Coverage noting product gaps (competition from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic) and the reassignment of Mustafa Suleyman have sparked debate about near-term AI competitiveness despite the broader reorg. That uncertainty is likely contributing to selling pressure. Microsoft reshuffles AI team to catch up on Copilot and model building (FT)
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup reduced their price target on Microsoft from $660.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Wolfe Research cut their price objective on Microsoft from $625.00 to $530.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Microsoft from $575.00 to $550.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price target on Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $591.95.
View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Microsoft
Microsoft Trading Down 1.9%
Shares of MSFT stock opened at $391.79 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $422.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $473.71. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The company has a market capitalization of $2.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.10. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.28. The company had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.23 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.76%.
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).
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