Turn8 Private Wealth Inc. Grows Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Turn8 Private Wealth Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 61.3% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 18,402 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,996 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 4.3% of Turn8 Private Wealth Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Turn8 Private Wealth Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $6,812,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Taylor Securities Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,616,000. PMG Family Office LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter worth approximately $828,000. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 15.7% in the fourth quarter. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management now owns 12,492 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,041,000 after buying an additional 1,698 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 2,332.1% in the fourth 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 period. Finally, World Investment Advisors boosted its stake in Microsoft by 22.1% in the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 272,424 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $131,750,000 after acquiring an additional 49,371 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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 Price Performance

MSFT opened at $401.10 on Friday. 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 12 month low of $349.20 and a 12 month high of $555.45. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $400.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $411.43. The stock has a market cap of $2.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The firm had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.46 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.71 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 $50,928,792.23. The trade was a 12.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 47,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,122,009.12. This represents a 8.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on MSFT. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, April 24th. China Renaissance reduced their price target on Microsoft from $630.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 4th. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Citigroup upgraded Microsoft from a “market outperform” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Forty-one 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, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $557.96.

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).