O Brien Wealth Partners LLC Boosts Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

O Brien Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 156.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,784 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,915 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 0.3% of O Brien Wealth Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,478,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $9,941,000. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 2.6% during the second quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 94,120 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $46,816,000 after buying an additional 2,373 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG grew its position in Microsoft by 3.8% during the second quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 922,524 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $457,119,000 after buying an additional 33,382 shares during the period. Weaver Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 14.0% in the third quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 18,340 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,499,000 after buying an additional 2,247 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gradient Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 4.3% in the third quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 285,163 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,700,000 after acquiring an additional 11,770 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $650.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price objective on Microsoft from $630.00 to $632.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Mizuho reduced their target price on Microsoft from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $586.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $618.18.

Microsoft Trading Up 3.3%

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $465.95 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $478.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $501.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.14, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.30 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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 Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction of $19,967,640.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total value of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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).