McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 9.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,019 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,423 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 5.9% of McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $6,780,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% in the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Bayforest Capital Ltd purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the third quarter worth $49,000. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter worth $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $580.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $632.00 to $659.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. New Street Research lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $670.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Daiwa Securities Group lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued 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 $591.87.
Trending Headlines about Microsoft
Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:
- Positive Sentiment: OpenAI tie-up is driving new customer wins and adoption of Microsoft AI products, supporting recurring revenue growth and Copilot monetization. How Microsoft’s (MSFT) OpenAI Partnership Is Bringing in a New Wave of Customers
- Positive Sentiment: Analysts point to an AI-fueled Azure surge and a large enterprise backlog (reported as a material competitive edge vs. peers like Adobe), supporting medium-term revenue upside. Microsoft vs. Adobe: Which Software Giant Has Better Upside Potential?
- Positive Sentiment: Strategic partner activity (e.g., Accenture collaborations and ecosystem integrations) reinforces Microsoft’s position in enterprise security and AI services, which can deepen customer stickiness and drive incremental services revenue. Accenture Expands AI-Driven Cybersecurity Capabilities with Microsoft Partnership
- Neutral Sentiment: Traders and retail investors are seeing increased options activity and yield strategies (but these are tactical, not fundamental). Some traders propose structured trades (butterfly, income ETFs) to play the pullback. Transform Microsoft Stock Weakness Into A $1,700 Payoff With A Butterfly Trade
- Neutral Sentiment: Large-cap active ETFs continue to hold Microsoft as a core position, which can stabilize flows even during sell-offs (institutional ETF flows are a background influence on demand).
- Negative Sentiment: OpenAI exclusivity appears at risk as OpenAI talks with Amazon, and reports say Microsoft is considering legal action — a potential breakdown of the partnership would materially weaken MSFT’s AI moat and Azure demand assumptions. Microsoft Weighs Legal Fight As OpenAI Amazon Talks Test Azure Edge
- Negative Sentiment: Policy/contract changes in local government dealings (NDAs and procurement) have been cited as a trigger for some municipal and public-sector deals to slow, which analysts say pressured the stock in intraday trading. No More NDAs: Microsoft Stock (NASDAQ:MSFT) Slumps After Change in Local Government Dealings
- Negative Sentiment: Security incidents continue to create headlines: a U.S. agency urged firms to harden a Microsoft endpoint tool after the Stryker attack, and reports of SharePoint being used as an attack vector raise enterprise risk and potential remediation costs. These keep risk-premiums elevated for MSFT. US agency asks companies to secure Microsoft tool after Stryker cyberattack
- Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned about rising infrastructure and AI compute costs that have pressured margins despite solid top-line beats; commentary that the stock has been “slammed” this year reflects worry about near-term margin compression and valuation re-rating. Microsoft Stock Has Been Absolutely Slammed This Year. Is It Finally Time to Buy?
Insiders Place Their Bets
In related news, Director John W. Stanton bought 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $397.35 per share, with a total value of $1,986,750.00. Following the transaction, the director 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares in the company, valued at $56,486,322.16. This represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Microsoft Trading Down 2.0%
NASDAQ MSFT opened at $381.35 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.39. The company has a market capitalization of $2.83 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.10. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $418.85 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $472.25. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.28. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 32.34%. The business had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.23 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 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).
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