Bristlecone Advisors LLC Sells 89,864 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Bristlecone Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 28.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 226,320 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 89,864 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 9.8% of Bristlecone Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Bristlecone Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $117,222,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 51.3% during the 2nd 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. Bayforest Capital Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter worth $50,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $44,000. Finally, Westend Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 71.2% in the third quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $65,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the company’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 of the company’s stock, valued at $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $590.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. Mizuho decreased their target price on Microsoft from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $586.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Daiwa Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, HSBC dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $667.00 to $588.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $597.73.

Microsoft News Summary

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

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $430.29 on Friday. 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 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $475.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $499.66. The company has a market capitalization of $3.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.23 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.76%.

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).