Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Chesley Taft & Associates LLC

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC decreased its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 225,772 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 5,892 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 5.0% of Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings, making the stock its largest holding. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $116,939,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% in the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Bulwark Capital Corp bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% in the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter valued at approximately $50,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $637.00 to $645.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Redburn Partners set a $560.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald set a $639.00 price target on Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $631.03.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total transaction of $6,266,880.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at $239,402,668.08. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and coverage point to improving AI economics — reports say Azure AI margins are positive and revenue is likely to beat estimates, supporting near-term earnings upside and giving investors confidence in cloud monetization. Azure AI margins article
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft pledged $17.5 billion of investment in AI and cloud infrastructure in India — a large, long-term growth initiative that should expand Azure adoption and enterprise spending in a major emerging market. India investment article
• Positive Sentiment: New enterprise partnerships (Cognizant, Infosys, TCS, Wipro) and a Cognizant-led push to scale Microsoft 365/GitHub Copilot & agentic AI deployments could accelerate commercial adoption and drive higher software and Azure consumption. Partnerships article
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft joined the U.S. “Genesis Mission” AI initiative alongside top AI firms — positioning MSFT to capture government and scientific AI spend and reinforcing strategic leadership in national AI programs. Genesis Mission article
• Positive Sentiment: Partner-channel and device news helped sentiment — LG’s reported backpedal on making Copilot mandatory drove a small positive knee-jerk move, easing concerns about forced integrations and signaling partner flexibility. LG Copilot article
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary frames MSFT as a durable AI/dividend play — pieces highlighting dividend/long-term strength keep buy-and-hold narratives alive but are unlikely to move price materially on their own. MarketBeat dividend article
• Neutral Sentiment: Consumer-product updates (Office 2024 upgrade) and legacy product refreshes support steady software sales, but are lower-impact versus cloud/AI developments. Office 2024 article
• Negative Sentiment: Jim Cramer warned that Microsoft “requires mass spending” to keep Azure competitive — a direct headline that reinforces investor worries about rising capex and margin pressure as MSFT scales data centers and AI infrastructure. Cramer spending article
• Negative Sentiment: Broader AI/tech jitters and commentary about “ballooning” capex have pressured the stock in recent weeks; that narrative could cap multiple expansion until evidence of durable margin recovery is clear. CapEx concerns article

Microsoft Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of MSFT opened at $485.92 on Monday. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The business has a 50-day moving average of $499.78 and a 200 day moving average of $503.29. The firm has a market cap of $3.61 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. The firm had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.30 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Microsoft 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).