Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stake Raised by Alley Investment Management Company LLC

Key Points

• Alley Investment Management increased its Microsoft stake by 7.6% in the first quarter, buying 4,686 additional shares and lifting its position to 66,734 shares valued at about $24.7 million.
• Wall Street remains broadly positive on Microsoft: several firms reiterated or raised buy ratings, and the stock currently carries an average analyst rating of Moderate Buy with a target price of $559.84.
• Microsoft continues to post strong fundamentals, recently beating expectations on earnings and revenue, while also declaring a quarterly dividend of $0.91 per share payable on September 10.

Alley Investment Management Company LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 7.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 66,734 shares of the software giant's stock after buying an additional 4,686 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 3.0% of Alley Investment Management Company LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Alley Investment Management Company LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $24,703,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% during the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Bernzott Capital Advisors purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Fairway Wealth LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 287.0% during the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at about $50,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on MSFT. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $595.00 to $680.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, April 24th. TD Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $540.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. HSBC cut their price target on Microsoft from $593.00 to $571.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Forty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $559.84.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total transaction of $1,812,780.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 47,468 shares of the company's stock, valued at $19,122,009.12. The trade was a 8.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total transaction of $519,111.08. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares of the company's stock, valued at $18,922,874.02. This represents a 2.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Argus lowered its price target on Microsoft but kept a buy rating, still implying roughly 32% upside from current levels. Benzinga / The Fly report on Argus price target cut
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentary continue to point to Microsoft’s AI and Azure buildout as a long-term driver, with one piece arguing that AI data centers are effectively “pre-sold,” suggesting strong demand for Microsoft’s infrastructure spending. Article on AI spending returns
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s recent earnings showed the company beat expectations on both revenue and EPS, reinforcing that the core business remains healthy despite the stock’s weak price action.
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft’s Xbox/gaming unit is facing restructuring under Asha Sharma, including layoffs and tough decisions about studio strategy, which adds uncertainty but could improve efficiency over time. FT article on Xbox changes
• Neutral Sentiment: The Federal Reserve named Xbox CEO Asha Sharma to a jobs-and-productivity task force, keeping Microsoft in the policy conversation around AI and labor, but with no immediate financial impact. Yahoo Finance report on Fed task force
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms issued notices about a securities fraud class action tied to alleged AI/Copilot misrepresentations, increasing headline risk and investor caution. PR Newswire lawsuit notice
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Starbucks is building internal AI to replace some Microsoft software underscore a broader threat: customers may use AI to reduce reliance on Microsoft’s enterprise products, which could pressure future software revenue. MarketBeat Starbucks AI cost-cutting article
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s AI expansion is also drawing criticism over rising emissions and heavy capital spending, feeding worries that the company is paying more for growth while investors question the payback period. TechXplore emissions report

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT traded up $0.74 on Friday, reaching $385.10. 24,605,248 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 44,511,868. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $349.20 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $2.86 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $402.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $414.58.

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 business had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.46 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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