75,705 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Acquired by Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC

Key Points

• Coastal Bridge Advisors acquired 75,705 Microsoft shares worth approximately $28.24 million, making MSFT its 12th-largest portfolio holding and representing about 1.7% of its investments.
• Wall Street sentiment remains favorable: 43 analysts rate Microsoft a Buy, with an average price target of $592.15. Recent quarterly results exceeded expectations, with revenue up 17.7% year over year.
• Microsoft raised its quarterly dividend to $0.98 per share, while insiders sold approximately $75.4 million of stock over the past 90 days; institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company.

Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 75,705 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $28,240,000. Microsoft makes up about 1.7% of Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,473 shares of the software giant's stock worth $549,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Friedenthal Financial grew its holdings in Microsoft by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Friedenthal Financial now owns 431 shares of the software giant's stock worth $160,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Sequent Planning LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Sequent Planning LLC now owns 3,733 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,382,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Lee Johnson Capital Management LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Lee Johnson Capital Management LLC now owns 687 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $256,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Riverpoint Wealth Management Holdings LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Riverpoint Wealth Management Holdings LLC now owns 5,543 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,052,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Evercore raised shares of Microsoft from an "underperform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Melius Research set a $665.00 target price on Microsoft and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, October 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, September 10th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Microsoft from $600.00 to $636.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Forty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $592.15.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Amy Hood sold 41,674 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $498.27, for a total value of $20,764,903.98. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 533,624 shares of the company's stock, valued at $265,888,830.48. The trade was a 7.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total value of $4,878,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 100,447 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,007,086.83. The trade was a 9.05% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock valued at $75,404,992 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.2%

MSFT opened at $532.95 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $349.20 and a twelve month high of $553.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a fifty day moving average of $507.45 and a 200-day moving average of $444.58. The stock has a market cap of $3.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. Microsoft's quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.65 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. This is an increase from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.27%.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Expectations are building for another earnings beat, with demand for Azure cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and Copilot supporting revenue and earnings growth. The key catalyst will be Microsoft’s October 28 report, where investors will look for accelerating Azure growth and evidence that AI investments are translating into monetization. Microsoft Earnings Preview
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft remains viewed favorably as a relatively cash-generative way to participate in the AI-cloud buildout. While Oracle’s cloud growth is faster, Microsoft’s stronger free cash flow, lower leverage and broad enterprise installed base may provide greater financial resilience as AI capital expenditures rise. Oracle Versus Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: A new Boeing fleet-intelligence platform, Dataliner, is being built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. The partnership could add a recurring enterprise workload for Azure and demonstrate Microsoft’s ability to embed AI in industry-specific applications. Boeing and Microsoft Dataliner
• Positive Sentiment: Tavant’s Microsoft Fabric accelerator is now available through Microsoft Marketplace, potentially making it easier for businesses to deploy Fabric-based analytics and AI solutions across Azure. Tavant Fabric Accelerator
• Neutral Sentiment: GitHub Copilot is reportedly a major customer of Anthropic, highlighting demand for Microsoft’s AI developer tools but also exposing reliance on outside model providers and potential supplier concentration risk. Anthropic Revenue Concentration
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s withdrawal as anchor tenant from a U.K. AI data-center project because of power-supply delays underscores a growing constraint: electricity and grid access may slow Azure’s AI capacity expansion and increase infrastructure costs. Microsoft Withdraws From UK AI Data Center Project
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that elevated prices for components could make Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox, Project Helix, less competitive or pressure demand. The gaming business is also undergoing restructuring, adding uncertainty beyond Azure and productivity software. Project Helix Pricing Concerns

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation NASDAQ: MSFT is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital platforms. Its products and services are used by consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

The company's principal offerings include the Windows operating system; Microsoft 365 productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook; Azure cloud computing and infrastructure services; Dynamics business applications; and enterprise security solutions.

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