Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Has $480.34 Million Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. cut its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 927,393 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 19,354 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 5.6% of Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $480,343,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $50,493,678,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at $18,733,827,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 49,640.3% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,967,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $14,905,904,000 after purchasing an additional 29,906,791 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $350,712,742,000 after buying an additional 13,691,572 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,703,959.04. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. This represents a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.3%

MSFT stock opened at $398.46 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.92, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.08. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $453.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $489.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.28 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.23 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 22.76%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and set a $641.00 price target (down previously from $645.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Barclays restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, February 6th. Wall Street Zen lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 18th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $650.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $591.95.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft locked in a long‑duration revenue arrangement with OpenAI (20% share extended through 2032), creating a sizeable, recurring cash‑flow channel tied to the AI leader — a clear structural upside for MSFT’s AI monetization thesis. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Insider buying: director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares (~$2M), a behavioral vote of confidence that can help stabilize sentiment after recent weakness. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street / institutional interest: Morgan Stanley and other firms highlight MSFT as under‑owned and many hedge funds/institutions have added to positions or maintained positive ratings — supports potential inflows if risk appetite returns. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: ESG/operational: Microsoft commits to continue matching its electricity needs with renewable purchases as it scales data‑centers, lowering regulatory/ESG risk for long‑term investors. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Growth vs. capex trade: Microsoft says it’s on pace to invest ~$50B in AI across the Global South by 2030 — a large, long‑term market expansion but one that requires heavy upfront capex and multi‑year execution. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Partnerships/enterprise traction: CrowdStrike’s Falcon is now available on Microsoft Marketplace, which increases enterprise stickiness and could drive incremental marketplace revenue over time (limited immediate impact). Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry moves (indirect effect): NVIDIA and Meta deepen their AI alliance and huge capex plans — this underscores relentless demand for compute but also signals competitors (Meta) spending to build infrastructure that could reduce future cloud demand. Implication for MSFT is mixed. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Near‑term selling and rotation: several pieces point to investor dumping and downgrades after a strong earnings beat — concerns that MSFT’s massive AI infrastructure spending will pressure near‑term margins have triggered profit‑taking and volatility. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Product/security jitters and sector pressure: reports of an Office/Copilot bug and research on “recommendation poisoning,” together with tech‑sector downgrades, amplify short‑term adoption and regulatory risk narratives. Read More. Read More.

Microsoft Company 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).