Latitude Advisors LLC Has $2.23 Million Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Latitude Advisors LLC cut its Microsoft stake by 17.6% in the first quarter, selling 1,289 shares and leaving it with 6,032 shares worth about $2.23 million.
• Microsoft’s latest earnings beat expectations, with EPS of $4.27 versus $4.06 expected and revenue of $82.89 billion, up 18.3% year over year.
• Wall Street remains broadly bullish on MSFT: analysts still rate it Moderate Buy on average, with 41 Buy ratings and a consensus target price of $557.96.

Latitude Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 17.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,032 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,289 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 1.0% of Latitude Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Latitude Advisors LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,233,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $50,664,631,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 56,160.8% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 60,116,384 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $29,073,486,000 after purchasing an additional 60,009,531 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the first quarter worth approximately $18,733,827,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 500.0% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 59,543,261 shares of the software giant's stock worth $30,840,432,000 after purchasing an additional 49,618,571 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 49,640.3% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,967,038 shares of the software giant's stock worth $14,905,904,000 after buying an additional 29,906,791 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $525.00 target price (up from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Dbs Bank lowered their target price on Microsoft from $678.00 to $573.00 in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Citigroup raised Microsoft from a "market outperform" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James Financial lowered shares of Microsoft from a "market perform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Forty-one investment 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, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $557.96.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $401.10 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $349.20 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The company's 50-day moving average is $400.70 and its 200 day moving average is $411.43. The company has a market capitalization of $2.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $81.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.46 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. Microsoft's payout ratio is currently 21.67%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at $50,928,792.23. This trade represents a 12.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the company's 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 sale, 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 a total of 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Key Stories 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 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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