Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stake Boosted by DSM Capital Partners LLC

DSM Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 19.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,651,420 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 268,937 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 12.2% of DSM Capital Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. DSM Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $855,353,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Westend Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 386.7% in the 2nd quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $44,000. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at about $50,000. Finally, ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $650.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. HSBC raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $643.00 to $648.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $586.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Microsoft from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $618.18.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

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.

Microsoft Stock Up 3.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $465.95 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.40. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $478.69 and a 200 day moving average of $501.21.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued 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 return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The firm had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. This represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their position. 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 ninety days. 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).