Madrona Financial Services LLC Lowers Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Madrona Financial Services LLC reduced its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 65,126 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,857 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 7.4% of Madrona Financial Services LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Madrona Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $33,732,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth approximately $50,493,678,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $45,040,162,000 after acquiring an additional 90,533,328 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth $18,733,827,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 49,640.3% during the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,967,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,905,904,000 after acquiring an additional 29,906,791 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $350,712,742,000 after acquiring an additional 13,691,572 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: New AI and robotics announcements — Microsoft unveiled robotics/agentic AI initiatives and pushed further into agentic AI for retail and frontline use, boosting enthusiasm that its product roadmap will translate into revenue from AI workloads. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Defense cloud contract — Microsoft won a sizable Air Force Cloud One task order (~$170M) that validates Azure’s position in government/defense spending and provides a tangible near‑term revenue win. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Investor reassessment of valuation — After recent weakness MSFT is seeing a rebound as analysts and market commentators highlight Microsoft’s relative growth, profitability and balance‑sheet strength versus software peers. That sentiment helped the stock move back up today. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reaffirmations and mixed targets — Several firms (Jefferies, Guggenheim, UBS) kept Buy ratings even as many groups trimmed price targets; that leaves a mix of support and pressure in the tape heading into earnings. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple price‑target cuts and downgrades — A wave of target trims (Cantor Fitzgerald, Wells Fargo adjustments, Rothschild/Redburn cuts and other downgrades) is adding selling pressure and keeps expectations muted into the Jan. 28 earnings print. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Service outages and security/privacy headlines — Recent widespread Microsoft 365/Outlook outages disrupted customers and raised reliability concerns; separate reports about providing BitLocker recovery keys to the FBI introduce potential reputational/privacy scrutiny. Read More.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $26,703,959.04. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of Microsoft 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 completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 3.3%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $465.95 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $478.69 and its 200 day moving average is $501.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $3.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The business had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.30 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on MSFT. Wolfe Research lowered their target price on Microsoft from $675.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Raymond James Financial decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $650.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Mizuho cut their price objective on Microsoft from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $639.00 to $590.00 in a research note on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $618.18.

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).