Alliance Wealth Strategies LLC d b a Brown Edwards Wealth Strategies Takes Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Alliance Wealth Strategies disclosed a new stake in Microsoft, buying 2,343 shares worth about $1.13 million in the fourth quarter. The position now makes up about 1.1% of its portfolio.
• Microsoft continues to attract strong analyst support, with 39 Buy ratings and 7 Hold ratings and a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating. Recent target increases from firms like Citigroup and Wells Fargo reflect continued optimism around the stock.
• The company’s latest results were solid, with earnings and revenue beating expectations and revenue rising 18.3% year over year. Microsoft also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.91 per share, payable June 11.

Alliance Wealth Strategies LLC d b a Brown Edwards Wealth Strategies purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 2,343 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $1,133,000. Microsoft makes up 1.1% of Alliance Wealth Strategies LLC d b a Brown Edwards Wealth Strategies' investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 51.3% during the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant's stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Fairway Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 287.0% during the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in Microsoft during the third quarter worth $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the firm'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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. This trade represents a 8.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total transaction of $519,111.08. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at $18,922,874.02. This trade represents a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $620.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Microsoft from $615.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. DZ Bank reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on Microsoft from $641.00 to $646.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Microsoft from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Thirty-nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $560.88.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft and Nvidia teased “a new era of PC,” with reports pointing to new Surface hardware and a possible AI-focused chip announcement at Computex, which could refresh the Windows/PC upgrade cycle. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Microsoft will unveil a new coding model and other in-house AI tools at next week’s Build conference reinforce the company’s AI monetization story and support sentiment around GitHub Copilot and Azure demand. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s latest earnings backdrop remains solid, with revenue growth of 18.3% and better-than-expected EPS, helping investors justify the stock’s premium valuation.
• Positive Sentiment: Several bullish writeups and analyst commentary say MSFT still has room to run because Azure, M365 cloud, and AI revenue are expanding faster than the broader software market. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is also drawing attention from investors, fund managers, and even congressional buyers, which supports the stock’s defensive-growth reputation but does not change fundamentals on its own.
• Negative Sentiment: A TechCrunch report says Microsoft is facing backlash for threatening a security researcher over unpatched bugs and code disclosure, adding some reputational noise ahead of Build. Article Title

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $450.24 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The business's 50 day moving average is $402.09 and its 200-day moving average is $434.62. The stock has a market cap of $3.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.10. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $356.28 and a twelve month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.46 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. Microsoft's payout ratio is currently 21.67%.

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).

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