Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stock Position Lifted by D.A. Davidson & CO.

D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 834,601 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 16,086 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 2.8% of D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest position. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $432,282,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% during the 2nd quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $44,000. University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter worth approximately $50,000. Finally, ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 155.7% during the first quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 156 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: High-visibility marketing + product partnership — Microsoft announced a multi-year technology and sponsorship deal with the Mercedes‑AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, raising brand exposure for Azure and AI capabilities and signaling enterprise demand for cloud/AI partnerships. Mercedes reveal images, announce Microsoft deal
• Positive Sentiment: Government win — Microsoft landed a roughly $170M Air Force Cloud One task order for Azure through 2028, validating Azure’s government demand and recurring-revenue profile. Defense contracts reduce revenue uncertainty and support cloud backlog visibility. Air Force awards $170M Cloud One contract
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional conviction — Activist/hedge investors (Third Point’s Dan Loeb) increased stakes in Microsoft, signaling belief in MSFT’s AI/cloud growth despite 2025 volatility. That buying can support the stock ahead of earnings. Billionaire investor doubles down on AI, boosts stakes
• Positive Sentiment: Consumer/engagement catalyst — Xbox Developer_Direct presentation lifted sentiment around gaming/content growth and monetization opportunities for Microsoft’s consumer franchises. Xbox Developer_Direct 2026 coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst views remain mixed but generally constructive — Several firms reiterated Buy/Overweight ratings (Jefferies, Guggenheim, Wells Fargo) even as price targets were trimmed in places, reflecting confidence in long‑term AI/cloud upside but acknowledgement of near‑term risks. Jefferies buy rating
• Negative Sentiment: Service outage hit — A Microsoft 365/Outlook outage disrupted access to email, files and meetings for thousands of users, creating immediate operational risk for enterprise customers and short‑term headline pressure on trust in cloud reliability. Microsoft 365 outage report
• Negative Sentiment: Margin and earnings concerns — Analysts and commentaries flagged cloud/AI margins as a key “tripwire” into the upcoming fiscal Q2 results; higher data‑center power and capacity costs could pressure near‑term margins if revenue mix doesn’t improve. That is weighing on the stock into earnings. Cloud margins are the tripwire ahead of FQ2
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst cuts/downgrades — A few shops trimmed price targets or signaled range‑bound outlooks (Rothschild, TD Cowen, others), which feeds short‑term selling pressure given MSFT’s recent pullback. Rothschild price target cut

Microsoft Trading Up 1.5%

Microsoft stock opened at $450.93 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45. 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 market capitalization of $3.35 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.07, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.07. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $479.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $501.40.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.89%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their position. 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 firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $586.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. Wolfe Research decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 15th. DZ Bank restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $665.00 to $630.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $620.79.

Microsoft Company 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).