LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. Increases Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• LGT Fund Management increased its Microsoft stake by 134.5% in the first quarter, adding 194,879 shares to reach 339,806 shares valued at approximately $125.8 million. Institutional investors collectively own 71.13% of Microsoft.
• Microsoft is expanding its AI and cybersecurity offerings, including Project Perception and its MAI-Cyber-1-Flash model, while analysts remain broadly bullish with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and a $554.73 price target.
• Investors are focused on whether Microsoft’s projected $190 billion in annual capital spending will produce sufficient Azure and AI growth. Strong demand could support the stock, but margin pressure, uncertain AI returns and recent insider selling remain risks.

LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. boosted its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 134.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 339,806 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 194,879 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 5.5% of LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.'s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $125,786,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 717,942,580 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $347,211,391,000 after purchasing an additional 15,955,898 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Microsoft by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 306,150,608 shares of the software giant's stock worth $148,060,557,000 after buying an additional 6,388,930 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 182,618,400 shares of the software giant's stock worth $88,056,019,000 after acquiring an additional 1,911,142 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 121,220,561 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $58,624,690,000 after acquiring an additional 980,439 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,664,631,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft launched Project Perception, an agentic security platform designed to detect and respond to AI-powered cyberattacks in real time. The company also introduced its first in-house cybersecurity model, MAI-Cyber-1-Flash. The products could strengthen Microsoft’s position in the growing enterprise cybersecurity market and create additional demand for Azure and security software. Microsoft launches its first cybersecurity model and a new agentic cybersecurity system
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors continue to report healthy Azure and broader cloud demand, with AI demand reportedly exceeding available capacity. UBS maintained a Buy rating, while Guggenheim reaffirmed its Buy rating with a $586 price target. Consensus expectations for Wednesday call for approximately $87.42 billion in revenue and $4.21 in earnings per share. Microsoft faces AI capex scrutiny as it prepares to report Q4 results
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s expanded partnership with Mistral and its work on custom chips support the company’s strategy of making Azure a leading platform for enterprise AI workloads. Investors view continued AI adoption and cloud monetization as potential catalysts for the earnings report.
• Neutral Sentiment: The immediate focus is Microsoft’s planned roughly $190 billion in annual capital spending, a reported 61% increase. The investment could support long-term Azure growth, but the market wants evidence that cloud revenue and AI demand are growing fast enough to justify the cost. Options markets imply a potentially large post-earnings move of about 7.24%. Microsoft Plans $190 Billion of Capital Spending This Year
• Negative Sentiment: Investors have recently been less willing to reward strong technology earnings because of concerns about AI spending returns, heavy debt issuance across the AI ecosystem, and margin pressure. Microsoft’s elevated spending could therefore weigh on the stock if Azure growth or forward guidance disappoints.
• Negative Sentiment: Several law firms publicized securities class-action lawsuits alleging investor harm and misleading disclosures related to Microsoft’s Copilot positioning, data silos, and interoperability. The claims are an overhang, although their near-term financial impact is uncertain. Microsoft investor class-action announcement

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $575.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, May 4th. President Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $520.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a "buy" rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Forty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $554.73.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total transaction of $519,111.08. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares of the company's stock, valued at $18,922,874.02. This trade represents a 2.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 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 owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at $50,928,792.23. The trade was a 12.30% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.9%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $389.10 on Tuesday. 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 has a fifty day simple moving average of $397.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $406.99. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $349.20 and a 12 month high of $555.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.16, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted 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 net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The firm had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $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 16.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

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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