D.A. Davidson & CO. Has $432.28 Million Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 834,601 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 16,086 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 2.8% of D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $432,282,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 51.3% during the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% in the 2nd quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $50,000. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp boosted its stake in Microsoft by 29.9% in the 2nd quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 126 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: High-visibility marketing + product partnership — Microsoft announced a multi-year technology and sponsorship deal with the Mercedes‑AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, raising brand exposure for Azure and AI capabilities and signaling enterprise demand for cloud/AI partnerships. Mercedes reveal images, announce Microsoft deal
• Positive Sentiment: Government win — Microsoft landed a roughly $170M Air Force Cloud One task order for Azure through 2028, validating Azure’s government demand and recurring-revenue profile. Defense contracts reduce revenue uncertainty and support cloud backlog visibility. Air Force awards $170M Cloud One contract
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional conviction — Activist/hedge investors (Third Point’s Dan Loeb) increased stakes in Microsoft, signaling belief in MSFT’s AI/cloud growth despite 2025 volatility. That buying can support the stock ahead of earnings. Billionaire investor doubles down on AI, boosts stakes
• Positive Sentiment: Consumer/engagement catalyst — Xbox Developer_Direct presentation lifted sentiment around gaming/content growth and monetization opportunities for Microsoft’s consumer franchises. Xbox Developer_Direct 2026 coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst views remain mixed but generally constructive — Several firms reiterated Buy/Overweight ratings (Jefferies, Guggenheim, Wells Fargo) even as price targets were trimmed in places, reflecting confidence in long‑term AI/cloud upside but acknowledgement of near‑term risks. Jefferies buy rating
• Negative Sentiment: Service outage hit — A Microsoft 365/Outlook outage disrupted access to email, files and meetings for thousands of users, creating immediate operational risk for enterprise customers and short‑term headline pressure on trust in cloud reliability. Microsoft 365 outage report
• Negative Sentiment: Margin and earnings concerns — Analysts and commentaries flagged cloud/AI margins as a key “tripwire” into the upcoming fiscal Q2 results; higher data‑center power and capacity costs could pressure near‑term margins if revenue mix doesn’t improve. That is weighing on the stock into earnings. Cloud margins are the tripwire ahead of FQ2
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst cuts/downgrades — A few shops trimmed price targets or signaled range‑bound outlooks (Rothschild, TD Cowen, others), which feeds short‑term selling pressure given MSFT’s recent pullback. Rothschild price target cut

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total value of $6,266,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 sale 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 company’s 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 in the company, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. Redburn Partners set a $450.00 price objective on Microsoft in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $450.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $586.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $620.79.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $450.93 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The company has a 50-day moving average of $479.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $501.40. The company has a market cap of $3.35 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

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).