Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Position Lifted by BLB&B Advisors LLC

BLB&B Advisors LLC raised its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 153,198 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 2,644 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 3.4% of BLB&B Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. BLB&B Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $79,349,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MSFT. IRON Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 23.2% during the 3rd quarter. IRON Financial LLC now owns 6,510 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,372,000 after buying an additional 1,225 shares during the period. Wellington Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth $9,941,000. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.6% during the second quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 94,120 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $46,816,000 after acquiring an additional 2,373 shares in the last quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 14.0% during the third quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 18,340 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,499,000 after purchasing an additional 2,247 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gradient Investments LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 4.3% during the third quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 285,163 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $147,700,000 after purchasing an additional 11,770 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $63,577,620.48. This represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MSFT. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Microsoft from $630.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Evercore cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $580.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $520.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, DZ Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.95.

Key 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 Stock Down 0.3%

MSFT stock opened at $398.46 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a 50-day moving average of $453.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $489.29. 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 current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.38.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. 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 presently 22.76%.

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).