Parr Mcknight Wealth Management Group LLC Raises Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Parr Mcknight Wealth Management Group LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.4% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 69,455 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,569 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 3.4% of Parr Mcknight Wealth Management Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Parr Mcknight Wealth Management Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $25,710,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% in the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Bernzott Capital Advisors bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $36,000. Fairway Wealth LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 287.0% during the fourth quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $44,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $389.10 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $397.52 and a 200 day moving average of $406.99. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $349.20 and a 12 month high of $555.45. The firm has a market cap of $2.89 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.16, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $81.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. 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 21.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total transaction of $1,812,780.00. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total transaction of $519,111.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,922,874.02. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft launched Project Perception, an agentic security platform designed to detect and respond to AI-powered cyberattacks in real time. The company also introduced its first in-house cybersecurity model, MAI-Cyber-1-Flash. The products could strengthen Microsoft’s position in the growing enterprise cybersecurity market and create additional demand for Azure and security software. Microsoft launches its first cybersecurity model and a new agentic cybersecurity system
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors continue to report healthy Azure and broader cloud demand, with AI demand reportedly exceeding available capacity. UBS maintained a Buy rating, while Guggenheim reaffirmed its Buy rating with a $586 price target. Consensus expectations for Wednesday call for approximately $87.42 billion in revenue and $4.21 in earnings per share. Microsoft faces AI capex scrutiny as it prepares to report Q4 results
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s expanded partnership with Mistral and its work on custom chips support the company’s strategy of making Azure a leading platform for enterprise AI workloads. Investors view continued AI adoption and cloud monetization as potential catalysts for the earnings report.
• Neutral Sentiment: The immediate focus is Microsoft’s planned roughly $190 billion in annual capital spending, a reported 61% increase. The investment could support long-term Azure growth, but the market wants evidence that cloud revenue and AI demand are growing fast enough to justify the cost. Options markets imply a potentially large post-earnings move of about 7.24%. Microsoft Plans $190 Billion of Capital Spending This Year
• Negative Sentiment: Investors have recently been less willing to reward strong technology earnings because of concerns about AI spending returns, heavy debt issuance across the AI ecosystem, and margin pressure. Microsoft’s elevated spending could therefore weigh on the stock if Azure growth or forward guidance disappoints.
• Negative Sentiment: Several law firms publicized securities class-action lawsuits alleging investor harm and misleading disclosures related to Microsoft’s Copilot positioning, data silos, and interoperability. The claims are an overhang, although their near-term financial impact is uncertain. Microsoft investor class-action announcement

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $646.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $525.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Argus cut their price objective on Microsoft from $620.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $575.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, HSBC decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $593.00 to $571.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Forty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $554.73.

Microsoft Company 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).