Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Position Increased by Inscription Capital LLC

Key Points

• Inscription Capital LLC increased its Microsoft stake by 4.2% in the fourth quarter, adding 1,978 shares to bring its total to 49,629 shares worth about $24.0 million.
• Analysts remain broadly positive on MSFT, with 39 Buy ratings and 7 Hold ratings, and MarketBeat reporting an average rating of “Moderate Buy” with a $560.88 price target, despite several recent target cuts and downgrades.
• Microsoft’s fundamentals and dividend remain solid: the company beat quarterly EPS and revenue expectations, posted 18.3% revenue growth, and declared a quarterly dividend of $0.91 per share, yielding about 0.9% annually.

Inscription Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 4.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 49,629 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 1,978 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 2.5% of Inscription Capital LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Inscription Capital LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $24,001,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% in the second 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 last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter worth $38,000. Fairway Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 287.0% in the fourth quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant's stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter worth $49,000. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth $50,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Weiss Ratings cut Microsoft from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. DA Davidson dropped their target price on Microsoft from $650.00 to $550.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Microsoft from $392.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $515.00 target price (down from $630.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Microsoft from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Thirty-nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $560.88.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total value 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 $56,486,322.16. This represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the company's 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares of the company's stock, valued at $18,922,874.02. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $418.57 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $399.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $437.48. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $356.28 and a 12-month high of $555.45. 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 company has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.44 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.46 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. 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, May 21st. Microsoft's payout ratio is 21.67%.

Microsoft News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is reportedly deepening its AI strategy through talks with Anthropic over use of its Maia AI chips, which could expand demand for Microsoft’s custom silicon and strengthen its position in AI infrastructure. Anthropic in talks to use Microsoft's AI chips, The Information reports
• Positive Sentiment: OpenAI’s reported integration of ChatGPT into Microsoft PowerPoint highlights tighter product tie-ins that could boost adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot and broader enterprise AI usage. ChatGPT Lands in Microsoft PowerPoint
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft and EY announced a $1 billion partnership to accelerate corporate AI adoption, reinforcing expectations that Microsoft can monetize AI across large enterprise customers. Microsoft and EY Team to Promote Corporate AI Adoption
• Positive Sentiment: Several articles and analyst notes framed MSFT as an undervalued momentum name with AI catalysts building, including RBC reiterating a buy rating, which may be supporting shares. Microsoft had its "buy" rating reaffirmed by Royal Bank Of Canada
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is undergoing an internal AI-era leadership reset, including the planned departure of longtime executive Yusuf Mehdi, which signals strategic change but also adds some organizational uncertainty. Microsoft veteran executive Yusuf Mehdi is leaving after the next fiscal year
• Negative Sentiment: Some coverage focused on Microsoft’s GitHub outages and higher AI operating costs, raising questions about execution, infrastructure strain, and whether AI usage is becoming too expensive to scale smoothly. Microsoft's GitHub was positioned to win the AI coding race. Outages got in the way
• Negative Sentiment: The Gates Foundation’s sale of its remaining Microsoft stake was a headline overhang, though it appears more like portfolio rebalancing than a direct read on Microsoft’s fundamentals. The Gates Foundation Sold All of Its Remaining Microsoft Stock. Should Investors Be Worried?

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).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.