Blalock Williams LLC Invests $3.31 Million in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Blalock Williams LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 6,386 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $3,308,000. Microsoft makes up 2.9% of Blalock Williams LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 51.3% during 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 during the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd bought a new stake in Microsoft in the third quarter valued at about $38,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $44,000. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new position in Microsoft during the second quarter worth about $50,000. Finally, ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 155.7% during the first quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 156 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on MSFT. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $392.00 price target (down previously from $540.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. HSBC reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $667.00 to $588.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. BNP Paribas Exane increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $632.00 to $659.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Daiwa Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $593.28.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total value of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT stock opened at $393.67 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $470.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $496.99. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week 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 1.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.92 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.08.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm 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 $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.76%.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft beat Q2 expectations on Jan. 28 and reported a record cloud quarter, supporting the long-term growth case for Azure and Copilot adoption improvements. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Certain analysts remain bullish: TD Cowen and Piper Sandler reiterated Buy/Overweight views and high price targets (~$600+), arguing Microsoft remains a top AI hyperscaler play despite near-term noise. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is partnering with the UK government on deepfake detection — a credibility/PR positive but limited near-term revenue impact. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Management changes in security leadership and commercial reorganization indicate ongoing operational adjustments; these are execution items investors should monitor. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Stifel issued a rare downgrade to Hold, flagging slower Azure growth, rising AI infrastructure and inference costs, and tougher cloud competition (Google, Anthropic). That downgrade catalyzed much of today’s selling. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts and media highlight OpenAI-related liabilities, Copilot adoption slippage and product usability problems — these raise questions about near-term monetization of AI investments. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Price-target trims and broad software-sector rotation amplified the move; multiple outlets cited analyst cuts and hedge-fund positioning as technical selling pressure. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Market worry over AI capex and margin pressure: some notes point to heavy near-term GPU/inference spending that could compress margins before revenue from AI products scales. Read More.

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).