Culbertson A N & Co. Inc. Sells 2,112 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Culbertson A N & Co. Inc. lessened its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 82,180 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,112 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 6.0% of Culbertson A N & Co. Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Culbertson A N & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $42,565,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its position 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 during the period. Westend Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% during the 2nd quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $50,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 29.9% in the 2nd quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 126 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large commercial deals and partnerships underpin continued demand — Microsoft landed a major cloud customer agreement (Perplexity, reported as a $750M deal), which demonstrates Azure can win sizable AI workloads and supports future revenue. Perplexity signs $750 million AI cloud deal with Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: Long-term AI opportunity remains large — analysts and commentators note that potential liquidity events (e.g., an OpenAI IPO) and continued hyperscaler AI demand could boost infrastructure spending that benefits Microsoft’s cloud and services over time. Could A $1 Trillion OpenAI IPO Save The Day For Nvidia, Microsoft?
• Positive Sentiment: Backlog/RPO growth signals demand — Microsoft’s commercial remaining performance obligations (backlog) jumped materially year-over-year, implying multi-year contracted revenue tied to AI workloads. Microsoft demand backlog doubles to $625 billion
• Neutral Sentiment: Quarterly results were solid but mixed — MSFT beat on revenue and EPS (Q2 results) yet the company issued guidance and commentary that implied a modest moderation in Azure growth vs. prior quarter; the market is parsing growth vs. the cost profile. Microsoft Q2 earnings beat on top and bottom lines
• Neutral Sentiment: Options and sentiment flows amplify moves — unusually high call-option buying and heavy volume have increased intraday volatility and may accentuate both selloffs and snapbacks. Stock Of The Day: Is This The Bottom For Microsoft?
• Negative Sentiment: Investor backlash to capex and margin risk — the core negative: investors punished MSFT because AI capex jumped (reported ~$37.5B in the quarter) while Azure growth showed signs of slowing, raising doubts about near-term returns. That drove a sharp selloff and a big market-cap contraction. Microsoft tumbled 10% in a day and isn’t recovering premarket. Here’s why
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst cuts & guidance uncertainty — several firms trimmed price targets or flagged near-term Azure/margin risks, increasing downside pressure even as many maintain buy ratings longer term. These Analysts Slash Their Forecasts On Microsoft Following Q2 Results
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/investor scrutiny follows the shock drop — law firms have opened investigations and class-action notices have surfaced, which can keep sentiment fragile near-term. Microsoft Corporation Investigated on Behalf of Investors

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total value of $1,364,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Rothschild Redb lowered shares of Microsoft from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Rothschild & Co Redburn decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $450.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $650.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wolfe Research cut their price target on Microsoft from $625.00 to $530.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $597.73.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT stock opened at $430.29 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $475.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $499.71. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45. The firm has a market cap of $3.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 32.34%. The firm had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict 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. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. 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).