Warren Street Wealth Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Warren Street Wealth Advisors cut its Microsoft stake by 17.3% in the fourth quarter, selling 1,768 shares and leaving it with 8,475 shares worth about $4.1 million.
• Microsoft continues to attract mostly bullish analyst coverage, with 39 Buy ratings and 7 Hold ratings; the consensus price target is $560.88, and several firms recently raised or reiterated positive ratings.
• The company posted strong quarterly results, beating earnings and revenue estimates with $4.27 EPS on $82.89 billion in revenue, while also announcing a quarterly dividend of $0.91 per share.

Warren Street Wealth Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 17.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,475 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,768 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 1.2% of Warren Street Wealth Advisors LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position. Warren Street Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,099,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. IRON Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 23.2% in the third quarter. IRON Financial LLC now owns 6,510 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $3,372,000 after purchasing an additional 1,225 shares during the period. PMG Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter valued at $828,000. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% in the third quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 70,175 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $36,347,000 after purchasing an additional 1,572 shares during the period. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the third quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 949,901 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $493,860,000 after purchasing an additional 9,700 shares during the period. Finally, Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 15.7% in the fourth quarter. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management now owns 12,492 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $6,041,000 after purchasing an additional 1,698 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MSFT. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $620.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. They set a "buy" rating and a $500.00 price objective on the stock. Guggenheim reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $586.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Thirty-nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $560.88.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total transaction of $5,045,695.92. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 137,933 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. This represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 directly owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at $18,922,874.02. This trade represents a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft and EY announced a more than $1 billion partnership to help enterprises launch AI projects, which supports Microsoft’s push to monetize AI across corporate customers.
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Anthropic is in talks to use Microsoft’s Maia AI chips suggest potential validation for Microsoft’s custom silicon strategy and a new revenue path in AI infrastructure.
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft and Black Tech Street launched the Greenwood Cyber + AI Lab in Tulsa, expanding the company’s AI and cybersecurity ecosystem and community presence.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles argue Microsoft remains attractive on valuation and may deserve a rerating, with analysts and investors citing strong cloud growth and improving AI adoption as long-term positives.
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft’s AI transition is still described as early, meaning investors are still waiting for the company to prove that its large AI investments will translate into stronger earnings and margin expansion.
• Negative Sentiment: Investor concern is rising around Microsoft’s aggressive AI capex, with one report saying AI spending fears and a large capital-expenditure outlook are pressuring sentiment despite Azure growth.
• Negative Sentiment: Coverage of Satya Nadella’s leadership reset and the departure of longtime executive Yusuf Mehdi points to internal restructuring, which may create some uncertainty even as Microsoft retools for the AI era.
• Negative Sentiment: A GitHub security incident involving stolen internal repositories is a reminder of ongoing cybersecurity risks tied to Microsoft’s developer ecosystem.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.5%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $419.09 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $356.28 and a 12 month high of $555.45. 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 company has a market capitalization of $3.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.10. The company's fifty day moving average price is $399.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $437.61.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The firm's revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.46 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. Microsoft's dividend 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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