Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Purchased by CX Institutional

CX Institutional increased its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 21.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 111,946 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,566 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 1.8% of CX Institutional’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. CX Institutional’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $57,983,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $50,493,678,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 564,387.1% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $45,040,162,000 after buying an additional 90,533,328 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the first quarter valued at $18,733,827,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 49,640.3% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,967,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $14,905,904,000 after buying an additional 29,906,791 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $350,712,742,000 after acquiring an additional 13,691,572 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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 Trading Up 3.3%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $465.95 on Monday. 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 one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $478.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $501.19. 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.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share (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 analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.30 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current 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 given a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 25.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, January 18th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $625.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, December 22nd. DZ Bank reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Evercore ISI set a $640.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird assumed coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Friday, November 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $600.00 price target for the company. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $618.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at $239,402,668.08. The trade was a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

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).