Trilogy Capital Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Trilogy Capital Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,831 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,718 shares during the period. Trilogy Capital Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $10,271,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 51.3% in the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Westend Capital Management LLC lifted 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 valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter worth about $50,000. Finally, ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 155.7% in the 1st quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 156 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $430.29 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $475.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $499.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.28. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.The business had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.28 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.23 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 22.76%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total transaction of $6,266,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% 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 link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $640.00 to $580.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Rothschild & Co Redburn lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $450.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird set a $540.00 target price on shares of Microsoft and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $641.00 price target (down previously from $645.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $597.73.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large commercial deals and partnerships underpin continued demand — Microsoft landed a major cloud customer agreement (Perplexity, reported as a $750M deal), which demonstrates Azure can win sizable AI workloads and supports future revenue. Perplexity signs $750 million AI cloud deal with Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: Long-term AI opportunity remains large — analysts and commentators note that potential liquidity events (e.g., an OpenAI IPO) and continued hyperscaler AI demand could boost infrastructure spending that benefits Microsoft’s cloud and services over time. Could A $1 Trillion OpenAI IPO Save The Day For Nvidia, Microsoft?
• Positive Sentiment: Backlog/RPO growth signals demand — Microsoft’s commercial remaining performance obligations (backlog) jumped materially year-over-year, implying multi-year contracted revenue tied to AI workloads. Microsoft demand backlog doubles to $625 billion
• Neutral Sentiment: Quarterly results were solid but mixed — MSFT beat on revenue and EPS (Q2 results) yet the company issued guidance and commentary that implied a modest moderation in Azure growth vs. prior quarter; the market is parsing growth vs. the cost profile. Microsoft Q2 earnings beat on top and bottom lines
• Neutral Sentiment: Options and sentiment flows amplify moves — unusually high call-option buying and heavy volume have increased intraday volatility and may accentuate both selloffs and snapbacks. Stock Of The Day: Is This The Bottom For Microsoft?
• Negative Sentiment: Investor backlash to capex and margin risk — the core negative: investors punished MSFT because AI capex jumped (reported ~$37.5B in the quarter) while Azure growth showed signs of slowing, raising doubts about near-term returns. That drove a sharp selloff and a big market-cap contraction. Microsoft tumbled 10% in a day and isn’t recovering premarket. Here’s why
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst cuts & guidance uncertainty — several firms trimmed price targets or flagged near-term Azure/margin risks, increasing downside pressure even as many maintain buy ratings longer term. These Analysts Slash Their Forecasts On Microsoft Following Q2 Results
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/investor scrutiny follows the shock drop — law firms have opened investigations and class-action notices have surfaced, which can keep sentiment fragile near-term. Microsoft Corporation Investigated on Behalf of Investors

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).