Lifeworks Advisors LLC Boosts Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Posted by Stanley Muller on Jul 28th, 2026

Lifeworks Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 27.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,663 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 5,066 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.1% of Lifeworks Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. Lifeworks Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $8,759,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Del Sette Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Del Sette Capital Management LLC now owns 946 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $350,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.1% during the first quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 79,262 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,340,000 after purchasing an additional 1,659 shares during the period. Avion Wealth boosted its position in Microsoft by 20.4% in the first quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 5,610 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,076,000 after buying an additional 951 shares during the last quarter. Persium Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 29.2% in the 1st quarter. Persium Advisors LLC now owns 3,212 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,189,000 after buying an additional 725 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Advisory Partners LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Financial Advisory Partners LLC now owns 11,520 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,264,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and set a $646.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Raymond James Financial downgraded Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Forty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $554.73.

View Our Latest Research Report on MSFT

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $18,922,874.02. This represents a 2.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total value 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Microsoft launched Project Perception, an agentic security platform designed to detect and respond to AI-powered cyberattacks in real time. The company also introduced its first in-house cybersecurity model, MAI-Cyber-1-Flash. The products could strengthen Microsoft’s position in the growing enterprise cybersecurity market and create additional demand for Azure and security software. Microsoft launches its first cybersecurity model and a new agentic cybersecurity system
Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors continue to report healthy Azure and broader cloud demand, with AI demand reportedly exceeding available capacity. UBS maintained a Buy rating, while Guggenheim reaffirmed its Buy rating with a $586 price target. Consensus expectations for Wednesday call for approximately $87.42 billion in revenue and $4.21 in earnings per share. Microsoft faces AI capex scrutiny as it prepares to report Q4 results
Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s expanded partnership with Mistral and its work on custom chips support the company’s strategy of making Azure a leading platform for enterprise AI workloads. Investors view continued AI adoption and cloud monetization as potential catalysts for the earnings report.
Neutral Sentiment: The immediate focus is Microsoft’s planned roughly $190 billion in annual capital spending, a reported 61% increase. The investment could support long-term Azure growth, but the market wants evidence that cloud revenue and AI demand are growing fast enough to justify the cost. Options markets imply a potentially large post-earnings move of about 7.24%. Microsoft Plans $190 Billion of Capital Spending This Year
Negative Sentiment: Investors have recently been less willing to reward strong technology earnings because of concerns about AI spending returns, heavy debt issuance across the AI ecosystem, and margin pressure. Microsoft’s elevated spending could therefore weigh on the stock if Azure growth or forward guidance disappoints.
Negative Sentiment: Several law firms publicized securities class-action lawsuits alleging investor harm and misleading disclosures related to Microsoft’s Copilot positioning, data silos, and interoperability. The claims are an overhang, although their near-term financial impact is uncertain. Microsoft investor class-action announcement

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $389.10 on Tuesday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $2.89 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.16, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.13. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $397.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $406.99. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $349.20 and a 12 month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The firm 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 posted $3.46 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 21.67%.

About Microsoft

(Free Report)

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).