Caerus Investment Advisors LLC Purchases 3,677 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Caerus Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 150.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,126 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 3,677 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 1.3% of Caerus Investment Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Caerus Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,173,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its position in Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% during the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,000,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 23,097 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,735,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total transaction of $5,045,695.92. Following the completion of 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John W. Stanton bought 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $397.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,986,750.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 83,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,339,651.75. This trade represents a 6.34% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $391.79 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $2.91 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The company’s fifty day moving average is $422.59 and its 200-day moving average is $473.71.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 32.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.23 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.76%.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Company unifies Copilot commercial and consumer teams to simplify product roadmaps and boost adoption — a move management says will improve coherence across enterprise and consumer experiences. Microsoft unifies Copilot commercial and consumer product teams in unit rejig (Reuters)
• Positive Sentiment: Product updates expand Microsoft’s AI footprint (Copilot, Agent 365, Foundry ecosystem) — these releases and partnerships aim to drive enterprise spending and stickier Microsoft 365 monetization. Microsoft Expands AI Strategy with Copilot and Agent 365 Updates (Yahoo Finance)
• Positive Sentiment: Talent and product hires: Microsoft acquired the Cove team (AI collaboration board) and other engineering talent to accelerate collaboration features — a low-cost way to shore up product capabilities. Microsoft hires the team of Sequoia-backed AI collaboration platform, Cove (TechCrunch)
• Positive Sentiment: Partnership R&D: Microsoft Research collaborated with MediaTek on microLED-powered optical cables to improve data-center power efficiency — supports Azure infrastructure competitiveness. MediaTek Develops Active Optical Cable Technology with Microsoft Research (PR Newswire)
• Neutral Sentiment: Enterprise AI UX battle: Microsoft, Google and Anthropic are embedding AI into spreadsheets (Excel vs. Sheets), a trend that could expand enterprise AI use but raises competition and margin questions. Microsoft, Google and Anthropic Channel Enterprise AI Use With Spreadsheets (PYMNTS)
• Negative Sentiment: Legal overhang: Microsoft is reportedly weighing legal action against Amazon and OpenAI over a reported $50B cloud deal — potential litigation and a deteriorating OpenAI relationship add strategic and execution risk for MSFT’s exclusive-cloud positioning. Microsoft weighs legal action over $50 billion Amazon-OpenAI cloud deal (Reuters)
• Negative Sentiment: AI execution concerns and leadership shuffle: Coverage noting product gaps (competition from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic) and the reassignment of Mustafa Suleyman have sparked debate about near-term AI competitiveness despite the broader reorg. That uncertainty is likely contributing to selling pressure. Microsoft reshuffles AI team to catch up on Copilot and model building (FT)

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of several research reports. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. HSBC lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $667.00 to $588.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 9th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $450.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $591.95.

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).