Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Sawgrass Asset Management LLC

Sawgrass Asset Management LLC lowered its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 13.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 95,462 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 15,296 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 6.1% of Sawgrass Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $49,445,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. IRON Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 23.2% during the third quarter. IRON Financial LLC now owns 6,510 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,372,000 after acquiring an additional 1,225 shares during the period. Wellington Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at $9,941,000. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 94,120 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $46,816,000 after purchasing an additional 2,373 shares during the period. Weaver Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 14.0% in the third quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 18,340 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,499,000 after purchasing an additional 2,247 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gradient Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 4.3% in the third quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 285,163 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,700,000 after buying an additional 11,770 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft locked in a long‑duration revenue arrangement with OpenAI (20% share extended through 2032), creating a sizeable, recurring cash‑flow channel tied to the AI leader — a clear structural upside for MSFT’s AI monetization thesis. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Insider buying: director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares (~$2M), a behavioral vote of confidence that can help stabilize sentiment after recent weakness. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street / institutional interest: Morgan Stanley and other firms highlight MSFT as under‑owned and many hedge funds/institutions have added to positions or maintained positive ratings — supports potential inflows if risk appetite returns. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: ESG/operational: Microsoft commits to continue matching its electricity needs with renewable purchases as it scales data‑centers, lowering regulatory/ESG risk for long‑term investors. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Growth vs. capex trade: Microsoft says it’s on pace to invest ~$50B in AI across the Global South by 2030 — a large, long‑term market expansion but one that requires heavy upfront capex and multi‑year execution. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Partnerships/enterprise traction: CrowdStrike’s Falcon is now available on Microsoft Marketplace, which increases enterprise stickiness and could drive incremental marketplace revenue over time (limited immediate impact). Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry moves (indirect effect): NVIDIA and Meta deepen their AI alliance and huge capex plans — this underscores relentless demand for compute but also signals competitors (Meta) spending to build infrastructure that could reduce future cloud demand. Implication for MSFT is mixed. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Near‑term selling and rotation: several pieces point to investor dumping and downgrades after a strong earnings beat — concerns that MSFT’s massive AI infrastructure spending will pressure near‑term margins have triggered profit‑taking and volatility. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Product/security jitters and sector pressure: reports of an Office/Copilot bug and research on “recommendation poisoning,” together with tech‑sector downgrades, amplify short‑term adoption and regulatory risk narratives. Read More. Read More.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $398.46 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $453.76 and a 200-day moving average of $489.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.39. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The company has a market cap of $2.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.08.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 32.34%. 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 firm earned $3.23 EPS. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $590.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $640.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.95.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $397.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,986,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 83,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,339,651.75. This represents a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the business’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 directly owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Company 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).