Principal Financial Group Inc. Buys 158,841 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Principal Financial Group increased its Microsoft stake by 158,841 shares in the first quarter, bringing its holdings to 15.02 million shares valued at approximately $5.56 billion. Microsoft represents about 3% of the fund’s portfolio.
• Institutional investors own approximately 71.13% of Microsoft, while analysts maintain a bullish outlook: the stock has a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $554.73.
• Microsoft’s latest quarter exceeded expectations, with revenue rising 18.3% year over year to $82.89 billion and EPS of $4.27. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.91 per share, equivalent to a 0.9% annual yield.

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 1.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 15,016,976 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 158,841 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 3.0% of Principal Financial Group Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.20% of Microsoft worth $5,558,840,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 51.3% during the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Bernzott Capital Advisors purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $36,000. Fairway Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 287.0% during the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant's stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $50,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft unveiled its first in-house cybersecurity AI model, MAI-Cyber-1-Flash, along with Project Perception, an agentic platform designed to detect and respond to AI-powered attacks. The products could strengthen Microsoft’s enterprise security position and create additional demand for Azure and security services. Microsoft launches AI cybersecurity model and defense platform
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remained bullish ahead of earnings. Citizens JMP reaffirmed a Market Outperform rating with a $550 target, while Piper Sandler maintained an Overweight rating and a $540 target—well above Microsoft’s recent trading range. Microsoft stock moves higher
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s expanding partnerships and integrations across Azure, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 Copilot support the argument that its broad enterprise ecosystem can monetize AI spending over time. Morgan Stanley estimates major technology companies could achieve 25%–50% returns on AI investments. AI capital expenditure plans

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on MSFT. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. TD Cowen reissued a "buy" rating and set a $540.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Arete Research upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $730.00 to $870.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Forty-two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $554.73.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the company'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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. This represents a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at $50,928,792.23. This represents a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $393.35 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. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $397.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $406.36. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.46 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend 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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