Peak Retirement Planning Inc. Acquires 1,355 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Peak Retirement Planning Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 21.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,583 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,355 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 1.1% of Peak Retirement Planning Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. Peak Retirement Planning Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,928,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% during the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $38,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in Microsoft in the third quarter worth approximately $49,000. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $397.35 per share, with a total value of $1,986,750.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 83,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,339,651.75. This represents a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on MSFT, which reinforces buy-side sentiment and can support the stock after recent weakness. MarketScreener: RBC rating
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft announced a Starlink partnership, a gaming leadership reshuffle (Asha Sharma named CEO of Microsoft Gaming) and expanded AI/data-center and sustainability initiatives — strategic moves that extend Azure reach and long-term cloud/AI revenue potential. Yahoo: Microsoft reshapes gaming and Azure
• Positive Sentiment: Macro and sector tailwinds: analysts point to rising enterprise software spending and a potential March market rally, which disproportionately helps large cloud/AI names like Microsoft. That supports expectations for continued revenue growth. Fool: enterprises spending more on AI software Zacks: March momentum
• Neutral Sentiment: Options activity and technical action show heightened trading around key support/resistance levels — this can amplify short-term moves but doesn’t change fundamentals. Watch volume and option skew for clues on near-term direction. Schaeffers: options traders pounce
• Neutral Sentiment: Technical analysis notes MSFT is in the top decile of relative rankings but facing key resistance—this suggests upside may be capped until price clears those levels. Benzinga: technical analysis
• Neutral Sentiment: Reputational/operational noise: a recent flare-up in the Copilot Discord required company attention; it hasn’t derailed momentum but is a reminder of product/community risk for AI rollouts. TipRanks: Copilot Discord furor
• Negative Sentiment: MSFT remains down materially from its highs and is ~7% lower since the last earnings release, highlighting investor skepticism about near-term growth and valuation pressure. That lingering post-earnings selloff continues to weigh on investor sentiment. Yahoo: MSFT down 7.3% since earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Industry headwind: a reported electrician shortage for AI data centers could limit near-term capacity expansion and raise costs for cloud providers, a potential operational constraint for Microsoft’s AI/data-center growth. Fortune: electrician shortage threatens AI buildout

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MSFT. Wolfe Research lowered their target price on Microsoft from $625.00 to $530.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Melius Research set a $430.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, February 9th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $641.00 target price (down from $645.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $591.95.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.5%

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $398.55 on Tuesday. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $441.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $482.37. 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 firm has a market cap of $2.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.08.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.The company’s revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.23 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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).