Lesa Sroufe & Co Buys 4,526 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Lesa Sroufe & Co boosted its Microsoft stake by 22.3% in the first quarter, buying 4,526 shares and making Microsoft its largest holding at about 6.2% of the portfolio.
• Microsoft remains a favored stock among institutions, with hedge funds and other large investors continuing to add shares; institutional ownership stands at 71.13%.
• The article also highlights continued optimism around Microsoft’s AI strategy ahead of its July 29 earnings report, with analysts still broadly bullish and recent news pointing to strategic partnerships and leadership in AI.

Lesa Sroufe & Co raised its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 22.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 24,804 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 4,526 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 6.2% of Lesa Sroufe & Co's investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Lesa Sroufe & Co's holdings in Microsoft were worth $9,182,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 4.9% during the third quarter. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC now owns 431 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $223,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Fischer Investment Strategies LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Fischer Investment Strategies LLC now owns 697 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $337,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Pollock Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% in the third quarter. Pollock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,805 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,453,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Better Money Decisions LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 0.6% in the second quarter. Better Money Decisions LLC now owns 3,498 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,740,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

More Microsoft News

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 Stock Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $401.10 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $400.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $411.43. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $349.20 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.27.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The company had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.44 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.46 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total value of $1,812,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 47,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,122,009.12. The trade was a 8.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the business'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 value of $7,145,345.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at $50,928,792.23. The trade was a 12.30% 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 worth $10,508,361 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. New Street Research lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Microsoft from an "outperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. DZ Bank reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Microsoft from a "market outperform" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. Forty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $557.96.

Microsoft 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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