Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Hamilton Capital Partners LLC

Hamilton Capital Partners LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 36,013 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 4,504 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 7.2% of Hamilton Capital Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Hamilton Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $18,653,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at $9,941,000. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 2.6% in the second quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 94,120 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $46,816,000 after acquiring an additional 2,373 shares during the last quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC now owns 2,290 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $860,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 922,524 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $457,119,000 after purchasing an additional 33,382 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gradient Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 285,163 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $147,700,000 after purchasing an additional 11,770 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Stores Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategic AI/data-engineering deal — Microsoft acquired Seattle data‑engineering startup Osmos to automate data pipelines, strengthening Azure’s data and AI stack and supporting enterprise adoption of “autonomous data engineering.” This is a clear product/capability positive for long‑term cloud and AI revenue. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Big investor interest — Peter Thiel’s Thiel Macro built a large new position in Microsoft in Q3, signaling conviction from a high‑profile investor and potentially drawing other allocators to MSFT. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst bullishness — prominent analysts (e.g., Dan Ives/Wedbush) call 2026 an “inflection” year for Microsoft and RBC reiterated its buy rating, underpinning buy‑side confidence and supporting higher price targets. Read More. | Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Positive narrative reinforcement — several opinion pieces and newsletters are pushing Microsoft as a preferred AI play vs. competitors, which may support medium‑term flows but offers less immediate market impact than hard news. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Investor skepticism on AI leadership — traders are parsing Microsoft’s AI edge relative to Google, and that debate has pressured the stock as investors weigh differentiation, products, and margin risk in AI. This dynamic likely explains near‑term selling pressure. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling and social chatter — summaries of social media and insider activity show heavy insider sales (no recent buys) and mixed retail sentiment, which can sap confidence among momentum traders. Monitor insider activity disclosures for further market reaction. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Reputational/political risk — coverage that Microsoft (and McKinsey) helped fund a politically sensitive US “Davos” hub has drawn criticism; while not a core earnings issue, such PR events can prompt short‑term outflows from ESG‑sensitive funds. Read More.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on MSFT. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday. HSBC lifted their target price on Microsoft from $643.00 to $648.00 in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Robert W. Baird initiated coverage on Microsoft in a report on Friday, November 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $600.00 target price on the stock. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $650.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $650.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $631.03.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.0%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $472.85 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.40. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $492.29 and a 200-day moving average of $503.98. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $3.51 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.63, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.07.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total transaction of $1,364,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total value of $6,266,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,577,620.48. This represents a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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).