Avity Investment Management Inc. Has $65.27 Million Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Avity Investment Management Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.4% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 126,015 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 3,144 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 4.6% of Avity Investment Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Avity Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $65,270,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 51.3% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd bought a new position in Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $49,000. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, Stance Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at $54,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Management unifies commercial and consumer Copilot teams to create a single Copilot product roadmap and experience; Jacob Andreou will lead Copilot work while Mustafa Suleyman shifts toward model research — a move investors view as improving focus and speeding product coherence/adoption. Microsoft unifies Copilot commercial and consumer product teams in unit rejig
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft Research collaborates on a MicroLED-powered Active Optical Cable design with MediaTek to improve data‑center power efficiency — a technology that could lower operating costs for large-scale AI infrastructure over time. MediaTek Develops Active Optical Cable Technology with Microsoft Research
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is named as a collaborator in large AI compute deployments (Nscale’s West Virginia AI campus), reinforcing demand for Azure and cloud services tied to AI GPU capacity. That supports long‑run cloud revenue upside. Nscale and Microsoft Announce Collaboration with NVIDIA and Caterpillar
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft reports progress on healthcare AI (MAI-DxO) with strong diagnostic results in testing; promising for long-term TAM but commercial and regulatory paths remain uncertain. Microsoft Pushes Toward ‘Medical Superintelligence’ in Healthcare
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader tech competition in quantum computing intensifies (IBM ramping hybrid quantum-classical work); Microsoft is active in quantum but the landscape remains long‑term and uncertain. The New Threat IBM’s Quantum Computing Research Poses to D-Wave
• Negative Sentiment: Security concern: reporting suggests Microsoft Intune tooling may have been used in an attack on Stryker — raises questions about enterprise security controls and could spur customer scrutiny or contract risk if such incidents scale. Microsoft Stock (NASDAQ:MSFT) Slips, Intune Tool May Have Been Used Against Stryker

Microsoft Stock Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $399.41 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $424.42 and a 200-day moving average of $474.29. The company has a market capitalization of $2.97 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.10. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 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 1.38.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.28 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.23 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 22.76%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 5th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $392.00 price objective (down from $540.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $591.95.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, Director John W. Stanton acquired 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $397.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,986,750.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 83,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,339,651.75. This trade represents a 6.34% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total value of $5,045,695.92. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 137,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. This represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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).