Narwhal Capital Management Has $80.84 Million Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Narwhal Capital Management reduced its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 156,069 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,179 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 6.0% of Narwhal Capital Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Narwhal Capital Management’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $80,836,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 299,196,519 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $148,823,341,000 after acquiring an additional 3,166,275 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 179,001,751 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $88,714,256,000 after purchasing an additional 3,532,054 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $50,493,678,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Microsoft by 16.1% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 10.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $433.50 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.22 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.07. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The business’s 50-day moving average is $476.67 and its 200-day moving average is $500.21.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results 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. The company 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 33.48%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.23 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be given a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total value of $6,266,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the business’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 trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Microsoft from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $630.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $660.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $599.72.

Microsoft News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q2 beat on top and bottom lines — EPS $4.14 and revenue $81.27B, with Microsoft Cloud topping $50B and Azure still growing robustly—this underpins the long?term growth thesis. Microsoft beats Wall Street expectations
• Positive Sentiment: OpenAI and AI revenue contribution is material — the company reported meaningful gains tied to OpenAI that help justify the AI investment narrative. Microsoft gained $7.6 billion from OpenAI
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft unveiled its Maia 200 AI accelerator — a strategic product for in?house AI capability, but commercial impact/timing is uncertain and longer term. Microsoft launches Maia 200 AI accelerator
• Negative Sentiment: Record AI capex spooked investors — Q2 capex (~$37.5B) rose sharply and management signaled continued heavy spending; markets worried about the timing and ROI of that investment. Microsoft sheds $430bn in market value as AI spending spooks investors
• Negative Sentiment: Investor reaction: a historic one?day market?cap wipe and broad tech weakness as traders rotated into names (like Meta) that showed clearer near?term payoff from AI spend. Microsoft lost $357 billion in market cap as stock plunged
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts trimmed targets and flagged near?term risk — several firms cut price targets or adjusted estimates citing slower Azure growth and heavier capex, increasing near?term downside risk. These analysts slash their forecasts on Microsoft

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).