Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is Cottage Street Advisors LLC's 8th Largest Position

Key Points

• Cottage Street Advisors reduced its Microsoft stake by 5.3% in the second quarter, retaining 21,169 shares worth approximately $7.94 million. Microsoft remains the fund’s eighth-largest holding and represents 3.1% of its portfolio.
• Analysts maintain a broadly positive outlook, with 42 Buy ratings and five Holds. Microsoft has a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and an average price target of $564.27.
• Microsoft exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $4.74 in earnings per share and $90.01 billion in revenue, up 17.7% year over year. Separately, company insiders sold more than 101,000 shares worth approximately $50.7 million over the past 90 days.

Cottage Street Advisors LLC reduced its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,169 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,179 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 3.1% of Cottage Street Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Cottage Street Advisors LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,942,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fairway Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 287.0% during the fourth quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant's stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Frankly Finances LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $35,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $101,000. Finally, Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $124,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Argus cut their target price on Microsoft from $620.00 to $510.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Microsoft from $450.00 to $530.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, September 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Microsoft from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Forty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $564.27.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total value of $2,388,068.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,188,276.96. This represents a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total value of $4,878,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 100,447 shares in the company, valued at $49,007,086.83. This represents a 9.05% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 101,335 shares of company stock worth $50,655,795 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft published a 37-page draft code of conduct for its in-house AI models, emphasizing that advanced AI should remain under meaningful human control and should not deceive people, resist shutdown, or hack systems. Investors appeared to interpret the framework as a way to address regulatory and reputational risks while supporting enterprise adoption. Microsoft drafts code of conduct to keep its AI under human control
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman called for greater coordination among leading AI companies, including third-party disclosure of model capabilities. The move may help Microsoft position itself as a responsible AI leader as safety concerns and potential regulation intensify. Microsoft AI chief: Now’s the time for top labs to coordinate on safety
• Positive Sentiment: Investor commentary remains supportive of Microsoft’s fundamentals, citing Azure growth, more than $100 billion in annual Azure revenue, strong Copilot adoption, and a large cloud backlog. Bank of America reportedly raised its price target to $600, while other analysts maintain Buy or Outperform ratings.
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is one of the few major hyperscalers still maintaining share repurchases while expanding AI infrastructure, potentially supporting per-share earnings if cash generation remains strong. The End of Big Tech Buybacks
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft plans a substantial expansion of global data-center capacity to meet AI and cloud demand. The investment reinforces long-term growth prospects, but returns will depend on converting heavy spending on power, land, and computing equipment into durable revenue and margins. Microsoft to triple data centre capacity
• Negative Sentiment: Chipmaker weakness, rising Treasury yields, and concerns that AI development may need to slow pressured the wider technology sector. These factors could weigh on Microsoft’s valuation despite its relative strength and defensive enterprise-software exposure. S&P 500, Nasdaq, Dow Drop on Chipmaker Weakness

Microsoft Stock Up 2.0%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $505.41 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $458.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $420.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.23. The company has a market cap of $3.75 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.11. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $349.20 and a one year high of $553.72.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The firm had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. Microsoft's quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.65 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital solutions for consumers, businesses and public-sector organizations. Its products and services include the Windows operating system, Microsoft 365 productivity applications, Teams collaboration software, Dynamics business applications and Azure cloud computing services.

The company also operates LinkedIn, GitHub and Xbox, which includes gaming consoles, video games and related online services.

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