Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Holdings Cut by Securian Asset Management Inc.

Securian Asset Management Inc. reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 366,969 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 21,627 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 5.0% of Securian Asset Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $190,072,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its position 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 worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC raised its position 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 in the last quarter. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $50,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $44,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp increased its stake in Microsoft by 29.9% in the second quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 126 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $63,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting 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.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Microsoft from $637.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $586.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. Rothschild & Co Redburn cut their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $450.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Raymond James Financial decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $618.18.

Microsoft Trading Up 3.3%

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $465.95 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a fifty day moving average of $478.69 and a 200 day moving average of $501.19. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Shareholders 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 dividend payout ratio is presently 25.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 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 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).