Centaurus Financial Inc. Takes Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Centaurus Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 73,023 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $37,822,000. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.8% of Centaurus Financial Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest holding.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in 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 Microsoft in the third quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Company unifies Copilot commercial and consumer teams to simplify product roadmaps and boost adoption — a move management says will improve coherence across enterprise and consumer experiences. Microsoft unifies Copilot commercial and consumer product teams in unit rejig (Reuters)
• Positive Sentiment: Product updates expand Microsoft’s AI footprint (Copilot, Agent 365, Foundry ecosystem) — these releases and partnerships aim to drive enterprise spending and stickier Microsoft 365 monetization. Microsoft Expands AI Strategy with Copilot and Agent 365 Updates (Yahoo Finance)
• Positive Sentiment: Talent and product hires: Microsoft acquired the Cove team (AI collaboration board) and other engineering talent to accelerate collaboration features — a low-cost way to shore up product capabilities. Microsoft hires the team of Sequoia-backed AI collaboration platform, Cove (TechCrunch)
• Positive Sentiment: Partnership R&D: Microsoft Research collaborated with MediaTek on microLED-powered optical cables to improve data-center power efficiency — supports Azure infrastructure competitiveness. MediaTek Develops Active Optical Cable Technology with Microsoft Research (PR Newswire)
• Neutral Sentiment: Enterprise AI UX battle: Microsoft, Google and Anthropic are embedding AI into spreadsheets (Excel vs. Sheets), a trend that could expand enterprise AI use but raises competition and margin questions. Microsoft, Google and Anthropic Channel Enterprise AI Use With Spreadsheets (PYMNTS)
• Negative Sentiment: Legal overhang: Microsoft is reportedly weighing legal action against Amazon and OpenAI over a reported $50B cloud deal — potential litigation and a deteriorating OpenAI relationship add strategic and execution risk for MSFT’s exclusive-cloud positioning. Microsoft weighs legal action over $50 billion Amazon-OpenAI cloud deal (Reuters)
• Negative Sentiment: AI execution concerns and leadership shuffle: Coverage noting product gaps (competition from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic) and the reassignment of Mustafa Suleyman have sparked debate about near-term AI competitiveness despite the broader reorg. That uncertainty is likely contributing to selling pressure. Microsoft reshuffles AI team to catch up on Copilot and model building (FT)

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $397.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,986,750.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 83,905 shares in the company, valued at $33,339,651.75. This trade represents a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $56,486,322.16. This trade represents a 8.20% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 18th. Robert W. Baird set a $540.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, March 9th. KeyCorp dropped their price target on Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $630.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.95.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $391.79 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $422.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $473.71. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one 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. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.10.

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, 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%.Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.23 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

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).