<div id="readability-page-1"><p>Apollon Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of  Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 10.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities &amp; Exchange Commission. The institutional investor  owned 398,679 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 37,050 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises  2.4% of Apollon Wealth Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Apollon Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $147,579,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.</p><ul><li>AI Is Selling Off, But These 5 Stocks Could Benefit Next</li></ul><p>A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its holdings in shares of  Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the period.  Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. grew its stake in shares of  Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period.  Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of  Microsoft by 410.4% during the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares during the period.  Wealth Group Ltd. increased its holdings in  Microsoft by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,000,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter.  Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC raised its stake in  Microsoft by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 23,097 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $9,735,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors. </p><h2>Wall Street Analyst Weigh In</h2><p>MSFT has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada  reiterated a &#34;buy&#34; rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $575.00 to $550.00 and set a &#34;buy&#34; rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Oppenheimer  reaffirmed an &#34;outperform&#34; rating and issued a $515.00 price objective (down from $630.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, April 27th. Raymond James Financial lowered shares of Microsoft from a &#34;market perform&#34; rating to a &#34;market perform&#34; rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on Microsoft in a research report on Monday, June 1st. They issued a &#34;market outperform&#34; rating for the company. Forty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued  a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of &#34;Moderate Buy&#34; and a consensus price target of $560.98.</p><ul><li>Why Microsoft Looks Like the Best Big Tech Trade for H2 2026</li></ul><p><b>Get Our Latest Stock Report on MSFT</b></p><h2>Microsoft Trading Up 0.5%</h2><p>Microsoft stock opened at $388.84 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 fifty-two week low of $349.20 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $2.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.15, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.13. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $404.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $416.21. </p><ul><li>Meta’s AI Compute Push Could Turn Its Massive CapEx Bill Into a Competitive Weapon</li></ul><p>Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The business had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $81.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.46 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis.  Equities research analysts forecast that  Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. </p><h2>Microsoft Dividend Announcement</h2><p>The business 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio  is presently 21.67%. </p><h2>Insider Activity</h2><p>In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at $50,928,792.23. This trade represents a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total value of $519,111.08. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. This trade represents a 2.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders. </p><h2>Microsoft News Roundup</h2><p>Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:</p><ul>   <li><span>Positive Sentiment: </span>Microsoft is getting credit for shifting more AI workloads to its own in-house models, which could lower costs and improve margins in products like Excel and Outlook. <i></i><span>Article Title</span></li>   <li><span>Positive Sentiment: </span>Several analysts remain bullish, arguing Microsoft’s Azure growth and AI infrastructure spending support the long-term thesis and could leave the shares undervalued after recent weakness. <i></i><span>Article Title</span></li>   <li><span>Positive Sentiment: </span>DA Davidson reiterated a Buy rating and a $550 price target, signaling Wall Street still sees meaningful upside despite near-term turbulence. <i></i><span>Article Title</span></li>   <li><span>Neutral Sentiment: </span>Commentary around Microsoft’s AI business remains constructive, with reports highlighting a large-scale AI revenue base and continued investor interest in the stock as an AI leader. <i></i><span>Article Title</span></li>   <li><span>Negative Sentiment: </span>Microsoft announced about 4,800 layoffs, including roughly 3,200 roles tied to Xbox, as part of a broader reset of the gaming business and a cost-cutting restructuring. <i></i><span>Article Title</span></li>   <li><span>Negative Sentiment: </span>Multiple reports say the Xbox division is underperforming, with weak margins and subscription results raising concerns that management is having to shrink a core consumer business. <i></i><span>Article Title</span></li>   <li><span>Negative Sentiment: </span>Microsoft also faces fresh securities-fraud class-action pressure tied to Copilot and Azure disclosures, adding legal overhang and headline risk for investors. <i></i><span>Article Title</span></li> </ul><h2>Microsoft Profile</h2> (Free Report)<p>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.  </p><p>Microsoft's product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).</p><h2>Featured Articles</h2><ul><li>Five stocks we like better than Microsoft</li><li>Apple and Broadcom Forge a Decade-Long Silicon Fortress</li><li>SK Hynix’s Nasdaq Listing Could Reset the AI Memory Trade</li><li>The AI Chip Sell-Off Looks Scary, But the Real Story May Be Liquidity</li><li>Palantir's CEO Just Called Out OpenAI and Anthropic</li></ul><p><strong>Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MSFT?</strong> Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report).</p><p><img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://www.marketbeat.com/scripts/SECFilingChart.ashx/query-UHJlZml4PU5BU0RBUSZTeW1ib2w9TVNGVA?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" width="650" height="350" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://www.marketbeat.com/scripts/SECFilingChart.ashx/query-UHJlZml4PU5BU0RBUSZTeW1ib2w9TVNGVA"/></p><p><em>This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.</em></p><h2>Should You Invest $1,000 in Microsoft Right Now?</h2><p>Before you consider Microsoft, you'll want to hear this.</p><p>MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Microsoft wasn't on the list.</p><p>While Microsoft currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.</p><p>View The Five Stocks Here</p>                  </div>

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<p>Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its Microsoft stake by 10.2% in Q1, holding 398,679 shares valued at $147.6 million. Other institutions like WFA Asset Management and Discipline Wealth Solutions also raised their positions. Analysts maintain a 'Moderate Buy' consensus with an average price target of $560.98. Microsoft recently reported strong Q1 earnings, beating estimates with $4.27 EPS on $82.89 billion revenue, and declared a quarterly dividend.</p>

- Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its Microsoft holdings by 10.2%, owning 398,679 shares, valued at $147.58 million.  
- Other large investors also raised their stakes, with 71.13% of the stock held by institutional investors and significant buy ratings from analysts despite recent price target adjustments.  
- Microsoft reported a quarterly earnings per share of $4.27, exceeding estimates, with dividends of $0.91 announced for September, while facing challenges like layoffs and legal pressures.

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Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Purchased by Apollon Wealth Management LLC