Bristlecone Advisors LLC Lowers Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Bristlecone Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 28.4% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 226,320 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 89,864 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 9.8% of Bristlecone Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Bristlecone Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $117,222,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. IRON Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 23.2% in the third quarter. IRON Financial LLC now owns 6,510 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,372,000 after buying an additional 1,225 shares during the period. Macroview Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 6,154 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,187,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 31.9% in the 3rd quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,534 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,082,000 after acquiring an additional 4,240 shares during the period. Swmg LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 31.0% during the third quarter. Swmg LLC now owns 3,558 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,852,000 after purchasing an additional 843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Washington Trust Bank boosted its position in Microsoft by 8.4% during the third quarter. Washington Trust Bank now owns 156,480 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $81,049,000 after purchasing an additional 12,159 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $575.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Wedbush lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $575.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Mizuho dropped their target price on Microsoft from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird set a $540.00 price target on Microsoft and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane increased their price objective on Microsoft from $632.00 to $659.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $597.73.

Microsoft News Summary

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

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $430.29 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $475.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $499.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.91, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.07. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.28. The company had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 32.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.23 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share 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 $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 22.76%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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).