Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY Raises Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY increased its Microsoft stake by 20.1% in the first quarter, adding 28,642 shares to bring its total to 171,359 shares. Microsoft is now the fund’s largest holding, worth about $63.4 million.
• Microsoft remains heavily owned by institutional investors and hedge funds, with 71.13% of shares held by institutions. Large holders like Vanguard, State Street, and Geode also raised their positions.
• Analysts remain mostly bullish on Microsoft despite some recent pressure, with a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $560.98. Recent headlines highlight both positives like AI cost-cutting and Azure strength, and negatives including 4,800 layoffs and legal overhang tied to Copilot and Azure disclosures.

Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY grew its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 20.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 171,359 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 28,642 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 5.8% of Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY's holdings, making the stock its biggest position. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY's holdings in Microsoft were worth $63,432,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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

Microsoft News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is getting credit for shifting more AI workloads to its own in-house models, which could lower costs and improve margins in products like Excel and Outlook. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts remain bullish, arguing Microsoft’s Azure growth and AI infrastructure spending support the long-term thesis and could leave the shares undervalued after recent weakness. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: DA Davidson reiterated a Buy rating and a $550 price target, signaling Wall Street still sees meaningful upside despite near-term turbulence. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Commentary around Microsoft’s AI business remains constructive, with reports highlighting a large-scale AI revenue base and continued investor interest in the stock as an AI leader. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft announced about 4,800 layoffs, including roughly 3,200 roles tied to Xbox, as part of a broader reset of the gaming business and a cost-cutting restructuring. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple reports say the Xbox division is underperforming, with weak margins and subscription results raising concerns that management is having to shrink a core consumer business. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft also faces fresh securities-fraud class-action pressure tied to Copilot and Azure disclosures, adding legal overhang and headline risk for investors. Article Title

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. President Capital boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $520.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Citizens Jmp started coverage on Microsoft in a research report on Monday, June 1st. They set an "outperform" rating and a $550.00 price objective for the company. Arete Research increased their price objective on Microsoft from $730.00 to $870.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Phillip Securities raised Microsoft to a "buy" rating and set a $485.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn cut their target price on Microsoft from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Forty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $560.98.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.5%

MSFT opened at $388.84 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company has a market capitalization of $2.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.13. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $349.20 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $404.84 and a 200-day moving average of $416.21.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.46 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total value of $519,111.08. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at $18,922,874.02. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the company'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 owned 110,477 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $50,928,792.23. This represents a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

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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