Waverly Advisors LLC Acquires 85,581 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Waverly Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 18.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 560,491 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 85,581 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 1.5% of Waverly Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Waverly Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $207,477,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Asset Management Group Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 12,610 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,668,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares during the period. Punch & Associates Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 16.5% during the first quarter. Punch & Associates Investment Management Inc. now owns 43,004 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $15,919,000 after purchasing an additional 6,083 shares during the period. Van Den Berg Management I Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 58.8% in the first quarter. Van Den Berg Management I Inc. now owns 27,496 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,178,000 after purchasing an additional 10,177 shares during the last quarter. Dempze Nancy E raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.5% in the first quarter. Dempze Nancy E now owns 18,954 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,016,000 after purchasing an additional 463 shares during the period. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth about $17,547,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s latest earnings showed stronger-than-expected profitability and revenue, with Azure growth and Copilot adoption reinforcing the view that substantial AI investment is beginning to generate returns. Hedge funds and institutional investors continue to favor Microsoft over some other mega-cap technology names. Hedge Funds Favor Microsoft Over Meta
• Positive Sentiment: Bernstein raised its Microsoft price target to $660 and maintained an Outperform rating, arguing that Microsoft’s data-center expansion is measured, flexible, and supported by durable cloud demand. Other analysts also identified Azure growth, backlog, and institutional buying as potential catalysts for a year-end rally. Bernstein Raises Microsoft Target
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Microsoft may unveil its Maia 300 AI chip as early as September and secure production capacity for more than 300,000 units could reduce reliance on Nvidia processors, lower long-term AI costs, and support Microsoft’s cloud strategy. Microsoft Maia 300 Chip Report

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Raymond James Financial lowered shares of Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. UBS Group set a $525.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. HSBC decreased their target price on Microsoft from $593.00 to $571.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on Microsoft from $502.00 to $522.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, May 4th. Forty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $559.16.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of MSFT opened at $503.81 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $349.20 and a 12 month high of $553.72. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $407.02 and its 200-day moving average is $407.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.74 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.11.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.65 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.58 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 20.27%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total value of $4,878,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 100,447 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,007,086.83. The trade was a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total transaction of $2,388,068.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,188,276.96. This represents a 10.13% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 38,572 shares of company stock valued at $17,775,330. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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).