LVW Advisors LLC Has $19.77 Million Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

LVW Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 11.5% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 38,178 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,950 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 2.0% of LVW Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. LVW Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $19,774,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in 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 last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% during the 2nd 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $50,493,678,000. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $45,040,162,000 after acquiring an additional 90,533,328 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $477.18 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a market cap of $3.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $487.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $503.65. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. The firm had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The company’s revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.30 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were 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 $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Raymond James Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Robert W. Baird initiated coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, November 14th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $600.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $650.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Arete Research upped their target price on Microsoft from $710.00 to $730.00 in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $630.37.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Goldman Sachs initiated coverage with a Buy and a $655 price target, highlighting Microsoft’s advantaged position in the AI stack and projecting material EPS upside — a major bullish institutional endorsement that can support the stock over time. Goldman Sachs coverage
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is partnering on AI-enabled gene-therapy research with NVIDIA and academic groups — a signal that Azure + AI partnerships are expanding into new, high-value markets beyond core cloud and productivity. FT: AI breakthrough for gene therapies
• Positive Sentiment: Reported December data shows a meaningful drop in MSFT short interest (about a 20% decline from mid-December), which reduces immediate downside pressure from short-covering events and indicates fewer bearish bets. (Market data)
• Neutral Sentiment: Wells Fargo kept an Outperform/Overweight stance on MSFT even after trimming its target — a mixed analyst signal that supports the long-term case while recognizing near-term valuation/expense concerns. Wells Fargo note
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage pieces highlight new revenue plays (e.g., Copilot Checkout for retail and positioning as a “trusted operating system” for enterprise commerce) — product-led upside that may take time to monetize and thus is a medium-term positive but not an immediate catalyst. MarketWatch: software comeback
• Negative Sentiment: President Trump said Microsoft will make “major changes” this week to ensure consumers don’t shoulder higher electricity costs from AI data centers — language that introduces political/regulatory risk and the possibility the company could face constraints or added costs related to data-center expansion. Reuters: Trump on data-center power costs
• Negative Sentiment: Rumors of large layoffs (11k–22k) circulated and prompted executive pushback; even when denied, such rumors can weigh on sentiment and raise concerns about restructuring costs or execution risk. FastCompany: layoff rumors response
• Negative Sentiment: Spence Asset Management reduced its MSFT stake, a small but visible instance of institutional selling that can add to intraday pressure when combined with the other negatives. TipRanks: fund cuts stake

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).