Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB’s 2nd Largest Position

MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB decreased its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 382,294 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 7,976 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 5.0% of MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $198,009,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. AlphaQuest LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 5.9% in the second quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 342 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $170,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC now owns 359 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $178,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Seek First Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Seek First Inc. now owns 1,358 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $675,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Level Financial Advisors raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Level Financial Advisors now owns 2,680 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,333,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Red Mountain Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Red Mountain Financial LLC now owns 2,761 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,373,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $639.00 to $590.00 in a research report on Thursday. Redburn Partners set a $450.00 price target on Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Microsoft from $665.00 to $630.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. TD Cowen reduced their target price on Microsoft from $655.00 to $625.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn lowered their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $450.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $618.18.

Microsoft Trading Up 3.3%

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $465.95 on Friday. 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 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $478.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $501.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.07.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company 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 dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Microsoft News Roundup

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 Activity at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% 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 worth $27,598,872 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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).