Sonoma Allocations LLC Takes Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Sonoma Allocations LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 5,203 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $2,662,000. Microsoft comprises 1.0% of Sonoma Allocations LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the second 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. State Street Corp raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 299,196,519 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,823,341,000 after acquiring an additional 3,166,275 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 179,001,751 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $88,714,256,000 after acquiring an additional 3,532,054 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $50,493,678,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in 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 in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on MSFT. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $520.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus set a $540.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. Scotiabank dropped their target price on Microsoft from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $586.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $599.72.

More Microsoft News

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

Microsoft Trading Down 10.0%

Microsoft stock opened at $433.50 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.22 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.11, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 firm’s 50 day moving average price is $476.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $500.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.28. The company had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.48% and a net margin of 39.04%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.23 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of Microsoft 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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).