Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Bought by Stonebridge Financial Group LLC

Stonebridge Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 31,569 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,146 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 1.4% of Stonebridge Financial Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $16,351,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Bulwark Capital Corp purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 386.7% during the 2nd quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at about $50,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Goldman Sachs and other firms reiterated bullish views (Buy/strong‑buy) citing Azure-led AI growth and compounding AI product cycles, which supports upside to MSFT valuation. Goldman Sachs coverage
• Positive Sentiment: New product / commercial traction: Microsoft is pushing agentic AI (Copilot Checkout, agentic retail automation) and expanding partner deployments (SymphonyAI, Fiserv), which can drive monetization across Microsoft 365 and Azure. Copilot retail initiatives
• Positive Sentiment: Enterprise demand signal: CIO and sell‑side surveys still point to Microsoft as a top beneficiary of rising IT/AI budgets — a structural tailwind for Azure and Copilot monetization. CIO survey / analyst notes
• Neutral Sentiment: Community‑first data‑center plan: Microsoft pledged to cover higher electricity costs, replenish water and pay local taxes to avoid community backlash — positive PR and long‑term permit facilitation, but with unclear near‑term cost impact. Data center initiative
• Neutral Sentiment: Strategic Anthropic usage: Microsoft is integrating Anthropic models into products (a potential diversification of model supply), which could improve product performance but also shifts vendor exposure. Anthropic integration report
• Negative Sentiment: Rising AI vendor spend: Reports MSFT may spend ~ $500M/year on Anthropic models raise concern about higher operating/variable AI costs and margin pressure if revenue realization lags. Anthropic spending concern
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/rotation pressure: Tech re‑rating and Fed/rate uncertainty are prompting a growth‑to‑value rotation that disproportionately hurts large AI‑growth names like Microsoft. That broader market dynamic is a major near‑term headwind. Growth-to-value rotation
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive / sentiment hits: Alphabet’s rally (and other AI partnership headlines) and criticisms around Windows quality in niche areas have weighed on MSFT momentum, contributing to today’s larger decline vs. the broader market. Competitive pressure note

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $459.38 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.40. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $485.51 and a 200 day moving average of $503.16. The firm has a market cap of $3.41 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.67, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.07. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on MSFT. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $639.00 target price on Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $650.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, December 4th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $637.00 to $645.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $650.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $630.37.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The shares were 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 owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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).