Forum Financial Management LP Grows Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Forum Financial Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 11.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 90,657 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,455 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 0.6% of Forum Financial Management LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. Forum Financial Management LP’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $46,956,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $350,712,742,000 after purchasing an additional 13,691,572 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 299,196,519 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $148,823,341,000 after purchasing an additional 3,166,275 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% in the second 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 period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter worth approximately $50,493,678,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large commercial deals and partnerships underpin continued demand — Microsoft landed a major cloud customer agreement (Perplexity, reported as a $750M deal), which demonstrates Azure can win sizable AI workloads and supports future revenue. Perplexity signs $750 million AI cloud deal with Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: Long-term AI opportunity remains large — analysts and commentators note that potential liquidity events (e.g., an OpenAI IPO) and continued hyperscaler AI demand could boost infrastructure spending that benefits Microsoft’s cloud and services over time. Could A $1 Trillion OpenAI IPO Save The Day For Nvidia, Microsoft?
• Positive Sentiment: Backlog/RPO growth signals demand — Microsoft’s commercial remaining performance obligations (backlog) jumped materially year-over-year, implying multi-year contracted revenue tied to AI workloads. Microsoft demand backlog doubles to $625 billion
• Neutral Sentiment: Quarterly results were solid but mixed — MSFT beat on revenue and EPS (Q2 results) yet the company issued guidance and commentary that implied a modest moderation in Azure growth vs. prior quarter; the market is parsing growth vs. the cost profile. Microsoft Q2 earnings beat on top and bottom lines
• Neutral Sentiment: Options and sentiment flows amplify moves — unusually high call-option buying and heavy volume have increased intraday volatility and may accentuate both selloffs and snapbacks. Stock Of The Day: Is This The Bottom For Microsoft?
• Negative Sentiment: Investor backlash to capex and margin risk — the core negative: investors punished MSFT because AI capex jumped (reported ~$37.5B in the quarter) while Azure growth showed signs of slowing, raising doubts about near-term returns. That drove a sharp selloff and a big market-cap contraction. Microsoft tumbled 10% in a day and isn’t recovering premarket. Here’s why
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst cuts & guidance uncertainty — several firms trimmed price targets or flagged near-term Azure/margin risks, increasing downside pressure even as many maintain buy ratings longer term. These Analysts Slash Their Forecasts On Microsoft Following Q2 Results
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/investor scrutiny follows the shock drop — law firms have opened investigations and class-action notices have surfaced, which can keep sentiment fragile near-term. Microsoft Corporation Investigated on Behalf of Investors

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $655.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Raymond James Financial reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $660.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird set a $540.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $586.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $597.73.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.7%

Microsoft stock opened at $430.29 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.07. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $475.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $499.71. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $555.45.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business 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 dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 22.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% 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 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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).