Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS’s 3rd Largest Position

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS raised its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,798,268 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 40,700 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 5.7% of KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,449,363,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% in the 2nd 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 period. Westend Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 386.7% in the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter worth about $50,000. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 29.9% during the 2nd quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 126 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 3.3%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $465.95 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $478.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $501.19. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-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 company has a market cap of $3.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 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 for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. The company had revenue of $77.67 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.30 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was 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 directly owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total transaction of $1,364,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. HSBC raised their target price on Microsoft from $643.00 to $648.00 in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, January 18th. Redburn Partners set a $450.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $650.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $618.18.

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.

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).