Cooper Capital Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Cooper Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 12.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,819 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,555 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 4.6% of Cooper Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Cooper Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,158,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $38,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,000. University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $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 purchasing an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft 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 value of $1,364,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large investor and analyst support — Davis Selected Advisers added to its MSFT position, signaling institutional buying at current levels. Davis Selected Advisers boosts Microsoft stake
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst/price‑target upside persists — coverage pieces note average upside targets well above current prices (one aggregation cites a ~605 average target), which supports the buy‑the‑dip narrative. Microsoft Stock Trades at $411, Showing Potential Upside of $605 Average Target
• Positive Sentiment: Major broker support remains — several firms have reiterated Outperform/Buy ratings after the results, keeping analyst conviction that MSFT is a long‑term AI winner. RBC Capital reiterates Outperform on Microsoft
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation & momentum check — recent writeups reassess Microsoft after a multi‑year run and the post‑earnings pullback, useful for investors deciding if the pullback is a buying opportunity or a reset. Assessing Microsoft (MSFT) Valuation After Multi Year Gains And Recent Momentum Shift
• Neutral Sentiment: Leadership moves in security & sales — Microsoft reshuffled security leadership (bringing back Hayete Gallot) and promoted sales leaders under its commercial CEO to accelerate AI sales execution; these are governance/execution items investors will track for remediation of past breaches and faster customer feedback. Microsoft brings back Hayete Gallot to run cybersecurity, as Charlie Bell takes new role
• Negative Sentiment: Product adoption and UX problems — reporting shows Microsoft’s pivotal AI/chatbot offerings are struggling with user adoption and engagement, a warning that commercial AI monetization may be harder and slower than hoped. Microsoft’s Pivotal AI Product Is Running Into Big Problems
• Negative Sentiment: Copilot adoption weakness — data indicates Copilot adoption has slipped (reported ~11.5%), raising concerns about customer uptake, branding/confusion and the timeline to meaningful enterprise revenue from Copilot‑style products. Microsoft Stock May Face Hurdles as Copilot Adoption Slips to 11.5% & Competition Intensifies
• Negative Sentiment: Earnings nuance — while MSFT beat overall EPS, reports highlighted cloud revenue that missed expectations and sharply higher capital expenditures, which helped trigger the post‑earnings selloff and keeps short‑term pressure on the stock. Microsoft: capital expenditures soar, cloud revenue falls short

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on MSFT. Daiwa Capital Markets decreased their target price on Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $586.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. HSBC dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $667.00 to $588.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $450.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $593.28.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $414.22 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $472.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $497.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.38. The company has a market cap of $3.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.08. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $555.45.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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).