Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stake Boosted by Childress Capital Advisors LLC

Childress Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 13.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 32,890 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,841 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 3.1% of Childress Capital Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Childress Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $17,035,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter worth approximately $50,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $44,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 29.9% during the 2nd 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 period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total transaction of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $26,703,959.04. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 3.3%

Shares of MSFT opened at $465.95 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $478.69 and its 200 day moving average is $501.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45. The company 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 announced 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The business had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.30 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Microsoft News Summary

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

A number of equities analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. UBS Group decreased their target price on Microsoft from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $650.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $639.00 to $590.00 in a research note on Thursday. Wolfe Research lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $675.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $586.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Three research 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $618.18.

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).