Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Acquired by Kathmere Capital Management LLC

Kathmere Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 35,196 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,609 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 1.3% of Kathmere Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Kathmere Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $18,230,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 51.3% in the 2nd 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 boosted its position in Microsoft by 386.7% during the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at $50,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $44,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 29.9% during the 2nd quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 126 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on MSFT. Wolfe Research lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $625.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, December 22nd. DZ Bank reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Evercore ISI set a $640.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on Microsoft from $655.00 to $625.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $618.18.

Microsoft Stock Up 3.3%

MSFT stock opened at $465.95 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $478.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $501.18. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.14, a PEG ratio of 1.82 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. The business had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The business’s revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.30 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Microsoft News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: New AI and robotics announcements — Microsoft unveiled robotics/agentic AI initiatives and pushed further into agentic AI for retail and frontline use, boosting enthusiasm that its product roadmap will translate into revenue from AI workloads. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Defense cloud contract — Microsoft won a sizable Air Force Cloud One task order (~$170M) that validates Azure’s position in government/defense spending and provides a tangible near‑term revenue win. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Investor reassessment of valuation — After recent weakness MSFT is seeing a rebound as analysts and market commentators highlight Microsoft’s relative growth, profitability and balance‑sheet strength versus software peers. That sentiment helped the stock move back up today. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reaffirmations and mixed targets — Several firms (Jefferies, Guggenheim, UBS) kept Buy ratings even as many groups trimmed price targets; that leaves a mix of support and pressure in the tape heading into earnings. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple price‑target cuts and downgrades — A wave of target trims (Cantor Fitzgerald, Wells Fargo adjustments, Rothschild/Redburn cuts and other downgrades) is adding selling pressure and keeps expectations muted into the Jan. 28 earnings print. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Service outages and security/privacy headlines — Recent widespread Microsoft 365/Outlook outages disrupted customers and raised reliability concerns; separate reports about providing BitLocker recovery keys to the FBI introduce potential reputational/privacy scrutiny. Read More.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,577,620.48. This represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction of $19,967,640.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. The trade was a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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).