Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Holdings Lifted by World Equity Group Inc.

World Equity Group Inc. raised its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 20.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 35,339 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 5,976 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 4.2% of World Equity Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. World Equity Group Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $18,304,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $50,493,678,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter valued at $18,733,827,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 29,906,791 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $350,712,742,000 after purchasing an additional 13,691,572 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $590.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Redburn Partners set a $450.00 target price on Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Stifel Nicolaus set a $540.00 price objective on Microsoft in a report on Thursday. Citigroup reduced their target price on Microsoft from $660.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $580.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $599.72.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer 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. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total transaction of $1,364,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q2 results topped expectations — revenue $81.27B and EPS $4.14 beat estimates, and Azure/cloud still grew materially, showing the business is executing even as it scales. Microsoft Q2 earnings beat
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial backlog/remaining performance obligations ballooned (reported as a large RPO driven in part by OpenAI commitments), signaling strong contracted demand that supports medium?to?longer?term revenue visibility for Azure and AI services. Backlog soars — The Motley Fool
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is expanding its AI stack (Maia 200 accelerator, ongoing deals such as a large Perplexity Azure contract), which strengthens competitive positioning in cloud+AI infrastructure over time. Maia 200 launch Perplexity $750M Azure deal — Reuters
• Neutral Sentiment: Some analysts reaffirm buy/outperform ratings even after the pullback; firms are tuning models but many still see multi?year upside, so institutional support remains mixed rather than uniformly negative. Raymond James reiterates Outperform
• Negative Sentiment: Record capital expenditures ($37.5B reported for the quarter) and management’s guidance implied faster, sustained AI capex — investors are worried about the timing and return on these large, near?term investments. Record AI capex — Financial Post
• Negative Sentiment: Azure growth slowed vs. prior quarter and guidance was tempered (Q3 Azure/Cloud guidance implied a slowdown), which combined with heavy spending spooked investors focused on near?term margins. Cloud growth & guidance — Reuters/Yahoo
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple firms trimmed price targets and the stock erased hundreds of billions in market value in a single session — a sentiment shock that can accelerate selling and ETF/index rebalancing flows. Market?cap loss coverage — CNBC Analysts slash forecasts — Benzinga
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/class?action filings and an investor fraud investigation notice add an element of regulatory/legal risk and headline noise that can pressure sentiment. Fraud investigation notice — BusinessWire

Microsoft Trading Down 10.0%

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $433.50 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $476.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $500.21. The firm has a market cap of $3.22 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.07.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.28. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 33.48%. The company had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $80.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.23 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities 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 dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Microsoft 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).