Ascent Group LLC Has $72.83 Million Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Ascent Group LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 28.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 140,611 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 31,126 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 2.6% of Ascent Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $72,830,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 51.3% in the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Bulwark Capital Corp bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% in the 2nd quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $50,000. Finally, LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was 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 owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 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 Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $477.18 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 $487.34 and a 200-day moving average of $503.65. 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 $3.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.94, a PEG ratio of 1.79 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%.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Goldman Sachs initiated coverage with a Buy and a $655 price target, highlighting Microsoft’s advantaged position in the AI stack and projecting material EPS upside — a major bullish institutional endorsement that can support the stock over time. Goldman Sachs coverage
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is partnering on AI-enabled gene-therapy research with NVIDIA and academic groups — a signal that Azure + AI partnerships are expanding into new, high-value markets beyond core cloud and productivity. FT: AI breakthrough for gene therapies
• Positive Sentiment: Reported December data shows a meaningful drop in MSFT short interest (about a 20% decline from mid-December), which reduces immediate downside pressure from short-covering events and indicates fewer bearish bets. (Market data)
• Neutral Sentiment: Wells Fargo kept an Outperform/Overweight stance on MSFT even after trimming its target — a mixed analyst signal that supports the long-term case while recognizing near-term valuation/expense concerns. Wells Fargo note
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage pieces highlight new revenue plays (e.g., Copilot Checkout for retail and positioning as a “trusted operating system” for enterprise commerce) — product-led upside that may take time to monetize and thus is a medium-term positive but not an immediate catalyst. MarketWatch: software comeback
• Negative Sentiment: President Trump said Microsoft will make “major changes” this week to ensure consumers don’t shoulder higher electricity costs from AI data centers — language that introduces political/regulatory risk and the possibility the company could face constraints or added costs related to data-center expansion. Reuters: Trump on data-center power costs
• Negative Sentiment: Rumors of large layoffs (11k–22k) circulated and prompted executive pushback; even when denied, such rumors can weigh on sentiment and raise concerns about restructuring costs or execution risk. FastCompany: layoff rumors response
• Negative Sentiment: Spence Asset Management reduced its MSFT stake, a small but visible instance of institutional selling that can add to intraday pressure when combined with the other negatives. TipRanks: fund cuts stake

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. Mizuho downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Arete Research boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $710.00 to $730.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Baird R W raised shares of Microsoft to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 14th. Rothschild Redb lowered shares of Microsoft from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $650.00 target price 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 issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $630.37.

About Microsoft

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).