Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA’s Largest Position

Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA lowered its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,851,757 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 31,215 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 8.5% of Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $963,950,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Tema Etfs LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter worth $24,969,000. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 9.4% during the third quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,253 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,239,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. Continuum Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.7% during the third quarter. Continuum Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,238 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,713,000 after acquiring an additional 749 shares in the last quarter. Towercrest Capital Management raised its stake in Microsoft by 12.6% in the 3rd quarter. Towercrest Capital Management now owns 7,280 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,771,000 after acquiring an additional 817 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IRON Financial LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 23.2% in the 3rd quarter. IRON Financial LLC now owns 6,510 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,372,000 after buying an additional 1,225 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

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 Stock Down 0.7%

MSFT opened at $430.29 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $475.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $499.66. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45. The firm has a market cap of $3.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.91, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.28. The company had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 32.34%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.23 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 22.76%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Rothschild & Co Redburn dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $450.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. New Street Research raised their target price on Microsoft from $670.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $655.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $590.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $597.73.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the company’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 sale, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is 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).