Lee Financial Co Has $7.43 Million Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Lee Financial Co cut its Microsoft stake by 16.3% to 15,357 shares valued at about $7.43 million, representing roughly 1.0% of its portfolio and the firm's 15th-largest holding.
• Microsoft beat the quarter's expectations with $4.14 EPS (vs. $3.86 est.) and $81.27 billion in revenue, and announced a $0.91 quarterly dividend ($3.64 annual, ~0.9% yield).
• Major institutions are largely adding to MSFT—Vanguard, State Street, Geode and Northern Trust all increased positions—leaving institutional investors with about 71.13% ownership; analysts’ consensus is a "Moderate Buy" with an average target near $570.

Lee Financial Co cut its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 16.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 15,357 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 2,985 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 1.0% of Lee Financial Co's investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Lee Financial Co's holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,427,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 691,386,214 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $259,539,471,000 after purchasing an additional 7,314,509 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Microsoft by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 299,196,519 shares of the software giant's stock worth $148,823,341,000 after purchasing an additional 3,166,275 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 179,001,751 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $88,714,256,000 after purchasing an additional 3,532,054 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $50,493,678,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Microsoft by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $424.82 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.57, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $356.28 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $393.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $449.40.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.23 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 21st will be issued a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is presently 22.76%.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Accenture will deploy Microsoft Copilot to ~743,000 employees, a large enterprise adoption that should boost Microsoft 365/Commercial monetization and validate Copilot demand. Accenture to roll out Copilot to all 743,000 employees in boost for Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: Notable value investor Michael Burry disclosed a new MSFT purchase, a signal some traders view as a contrarian endorsement after recent weakness. Michael Burry Just Bought Microsoft. It’s a Genius Move Worth Following
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts remain broadly constructive but are trimming targets and recalibrating near-term expectations ahead of earnings — Oppenheimer reaffirmed Outperform but cut its PT; Cantor Fitzgerald trimmed its target too. That keeps long‑term thesis intact but raises short‑term uncertainty. Oppenheimer Outperform, PT Cut (Benzinga)
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary and previews (Jefferies, Evercore, others) flag Q3 earnings as pivotal — strong cloud and AI numbers could reignite the rally, so near-term price action will hinge on Wednesday’s print. Microsoft Q3 preview: Jefferies says it's time to reset the narrative
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft and OpenAI rewrote their deal: Microsoft’s exclusive license ends, OpenAI can sell products on AWS/Google Cloud, and Microsoft will stop traditional revenue sharing — a change that reduces Azure’s exclusivity moat and spurred an immediate share pullback as investors price higher cloud competition. Microsoft and OpenAI gut their exclusive deal, freeing OpenAI to sell on AWS and Google Cloud
• Negative Sentiment: Operational and regulatory noise: an Outlook.com sign‑in outage and a new UK antitrust lawsuit from Slack over Teams bundling add execution and legal risk that could weigh on near‑term sentiment. Microsoft says Outlook.com outage is causing sign‑in failures - BleepingComputer Microsoft facing UK antitrust lawsuit from Slack over Teams 'bundling' (Reuters)

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. This represents a 8.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $397.35 per share, with a total value of $1,986,750.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 83,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,339,651.75. The trade was a 6.34% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 29th. BNP Paribas Exane cut their price objective on Microsoft from $659.00 to $556.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 10th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $500.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on Microsoft from $630.00 to $575.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $570.00.

About Microsoft

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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