Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is Narwhal Capital Management’s 3rd Largest Position

Narwhal Capital Management lowered its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 156,069 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,179 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 6.0% of Narwhal Capital Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Narwhal Capital Management’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $80,836,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter worth about $9,941,000. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,373 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its stake in Microsoft by 3.8% in the second quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 922,524 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $457,119,000 after purchasing an additional 33,382 shares during the last quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 14.0% in the third quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 18,340 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,499,000 after purchasing an additional 2,247 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gradient Investments LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 4.3% during the third quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 285,163 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $147,700,000 after purchasing an additional 11,770 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Redburn Partners set a $450.00 price target on Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $640.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. Rothschild & Co Redburn lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $450.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $540.00 target price on Microsoft and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $599.72.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $433.50 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.22 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.11, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.07. 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 simple moving average of $476.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $500.21. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly 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 firm 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 revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.23 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total value of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft News Roundup

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).