Stephens Inc. AR Has $182.30 Million Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Stephens Inc. AR boosted its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 351,666 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,532 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 2.3% of Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $182,300,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. AlphaQuest LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 342 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $170,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. Level Financial Advisors grew its holdings in Microsoft by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Level Financial Advisors now owns 2,680 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,333,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Red Mountain Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the second quarter. Red Mountain Financial LLC now owns 2,761 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,373,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Onyx Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Onyx Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,108 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,536,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Foundation Wealth Management LLC PA boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% in the second quarter. Foundation Wealth Management LLC PA now owns 1,276 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $635,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total transaction of $6,266,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large investor and analyst support — Davis Selected Advisers added to its MSFT position, signaling institutional buying at current levels. Davis Selected Advisers boosts Microsoft stake
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst/price‑target upside persists — coverage pieces note average upside targets well above current prices (one aggregation cites a ~605 average target), which supports the buy‑the‑dip narrative. Microsoft Stock Trades at $411, Showing Potential Upside of $605 Average Target
• Positive Sentiment: Major broker support remains — several firms have reiterated Outperform/Buy ratings after the results, keeping analyst conviction that MSFT is a long‑term AI winner. RBC Capital reiterates Outperform on Microsoft
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation & momentum check — recent writeups reassess Microsoft after a multi‑year run and the post‑earnings pullback, useful for investors deciding if the pullback is a buying opportunity or a reset. Assessing Microsoft (MSFT) Valuation After Multi Year Gains And Recent Momentum Shift
• Neutral Sentiment: Leadership moves in security & sales — Microsoft reshuffled security leadership (bringing back Hayete Gallot) and promoted sales leaders under its commercial CEO to accelerate AI sales execution; these are governance/execution items investors will track for remediation of past breaches and faster customer feedback. Microsoft brings back Hayete Gallot to run cybersecurity, as Charlie Bell takes new role
• Negative Sentiment: Product adoption and UX problems — reporting shows Microsoft’s pivotal AI/chatbot offerings are struggling with user adoption and engagement, a warning that commercial AI monetization may be harder and slower than hoped. Microsoft’s Pivotal AI Product Is Running Into Big Problems
• Negative Sentiment: Copilot adoption weakness — data indicates Copilot adoption has slipped (reported ~11.5%), raising concerns about customer uptake, branding/confusion and the timeline to meaningful enterprise revenue from Copilot‑style products. Microsoft Stock May Face Hurdles as Copilot Adoption Slips to 11.5% & Competition Intensifies
• Negative Sentiment: Earnings nuance — while MSFT beat overall EPS, reports highlighted cloud revenue that missed expectations and sharply higher capital expenditures, which helped trigger the post‑earnings selloff and keeps short‑term pressure on the stock. Microsoft: capital expenditures soar, cloud revenue falls short

Microsoft Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of MSFT opened at $414.22 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The business’s fifty day moving average is $472.08 and its 200-day moving average is $497.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market cap of $3.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.90, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.08.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 22.76%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Rothschild Redb lowered shares of Microsoft from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Microsoft from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Sunday. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on Microsoft from $655.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $450.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $593.28.

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).