Foster & Motley Inc. Purchases 5,487 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Foster & Motley Inc. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 7.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 80,287 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,487 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 1.5% of Foster & Motley Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Foster & Motley Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $29,720,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. OLD National Bancorp IN increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.5% in the first quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 335,403 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $124,156,000 after purchasing an additional 14,543 shares during the period. Artesa Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Artesa Financial Group LLC now owns 3,960 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,466,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Balance Wealth LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Balance Wealth LLC now owns 8,309 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,076,000 after buying an additional 146 shares during the period. Chronos Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.3% during the first quarter. Chronos Wealth Management LLC now owns 31,729 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $11,745,000 after buying an additional 416 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Haven Capital Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the first quarter. Haven Capital Group Inc. now owns 7,967 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,949,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MSFT. BNP Paribas Exane dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $556.00 to $555.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $400.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $525.00 target price (up from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price target on Microsoft from $600.00 to $550.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Forty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $560.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at $18,922,874.02. This represents a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total value of $1,812,780.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 47,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,122,009.12. This represents a 8.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $390.49 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.90 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $349.20 and a 12-month high of $555.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $406.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $418.05.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The company had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.46 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. 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 payout ratio is currently 21.67%.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft launched Microsoft Frontier Company, a new $2.5 billion AI implementation business that will embed about 6,000 engineers, consultants and support specialists inside customer operations to speed enterprise AI adoption. Reuters: Microsoft launches firm to help companies adopt AI with $2.5 billion
• Positive Sentiment: Several reports and commentary said the new AI unit reinforces Microsoft’s leadership in enterprise AI and could drive more Azure and Copilot usage, helping explain the stock’s strength. GeekWire: Microsoft announces $2.5B ‘Frontier Company’ to embed AI engineers inside customers
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s enterprise AI momentum was also supported by a new five-year deal with Haleon to expand AI, cloud and data technology across the health company’s operations. MarketBeat: Meta’s AI Compute Push Could Turn Its Massive CapEx Bill Into a Competitive Weapon
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is reportedly preparing another round of layoffs, potentially affecting thousands of workers in sales, consulting and Xbox, as it keeps pouring money into AI infrastructure. This may help costs over time, but it also highlights ongoing restructuring and margin pressure. Reuters: Microsoft partners with Singapore’s Lightstorm to build India-Southeast Asia undersea cable
• Negative Sentiment: Investor sentiment is also being weighed by a securities fraud class action and related deadline reminders, which add legal uncertainty to the name. PRNewswire: Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Shareholders Who Lost Money Have Opportunity to Lead Securities Fraud Lawsuit

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).