Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Holdings Trimmed by Blair William & Co. IL

Blair William & Co. IL trimmed its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,607,106 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 89,598 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 5.0% of Blair William & Co. IL’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,868,301,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. IRON Financial LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 23.2% in the third quarter. IRON Financial LLC now owns 6,510 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,372,000 after buying an additional 1,225 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $9,941,000. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 2.6% in the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 70,175 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,347,000 after acquiring an additional 1,572 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Weaver Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 14.0% in the 3rd quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 18,340 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,499,000 after acquiring an additional 2,247 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Sell‑side support remains strong — several firms have reiterated buys/outperform and bullish price targets, which underpins long‑term investor confidence. William Blair reiterates Outperform on Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: Product/AI momentum — Microsoft is rolling out Copilot Health, agentic Copilot features across Office apps, and the new Microsoft 365 E7 AI bundle (adds Anthropic Claude Cowork, Agent 365, Entra), all of which support higher‑value commercial monetization and stickier cloud revenue. Copilot Health paves path to medical superintelligence
• Positive Sentiment: Social and trader sentiment is highlighting agentic Copilot and AI infrastructure leadership as reasons for near‑term support and potential upside if resistance breaks. Quiver Quant summary of Agentic Copilot buzz
• Neutral Sentiment: Xbox roadmap and gaming hardware (Project Helix prototypes to developers in 2027) bolster long‑term diversification but have limited near‑term revenue impact. CNBC on Project Helix
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst price targets remain elevated (median targets well above current levels) and institutional positioning is mixed — supportive for a medium‑term recovery but not an immediate catalyst. Zacks on analyst views
• Negative Sentiment: High and rising capital expenditures for AI data centers are a near‑term earnings headwind; investor letters and coverage flag capex intensity as a reason MSFT has underperformed peers despite strong top‑line growth. InsiderMonkey on data center capex concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Leadership change — Rajesh Jha, a senior exec tied to Office/Copilot rollouts, is retiring; markets tend to discount execution risk when key product leaders depart. Reuters on Rajesh Jha retirement
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/political risk — Microsoft’s public support for Anthropic in its legal fight with the Pentagon raises short‑term uncertainty around government contracting and could create customer/contract exposure. FT: Microsoft backs Anthropic vs Pentagon
• Negative Sentiment: Macro and market‑structure risk — rotation out of megacap tech and warnings about midterm‑year volatility are pressuring MSFT along with peers. Technical support levels around the recent pullback are being watched by traders. MarketBeat mid‑March market warning

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total value of $5,045,695.92. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 137,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. The trade was a 8.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $397.35 per share, with a total value of $1,986,750.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 83,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,339,651.75. The trade was a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $401.86 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.98 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $429.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $476.96.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $81.27 billion for 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 company’s revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.23 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 21st will be paid a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.76%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MSFT. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $575.00 to $550.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Daiwa Securities Group cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. New Street Research boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $670.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.95.

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).