Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is James Investment Research Inc.'s 3rd Largest Position

Key Points

• James Investment Research Inc. cut its Microsoft stake by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, but Microsoft still remained its third-largest holding at 3.8% of portfolio value, worth about $34.6 million.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive: several firms raised or reiterated price targets, and MarketBeat shows 39 Buy ratings versus seven Holds, with an average target price of $560.88.
• Microsoft continues to benefit from AI-related catalysts, including reported talks with Anthropic about Maia AI chips, ChatGPT integration into PowerPoint, and a $1 billion partnership with EY to promote corporate AI adoption.

James Investment Research Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 3.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 71,568 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 2,686 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 3.8% of James Investment Research Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. James Investment Research Inc.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $34,612,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MSFT. IRON Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 23.2% in the 3rd quarter. IRON Financial LLC now owns 6,510 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $3,372,000 after purchasing an additional 1,225 shares during the last quarter. PMG Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $828,000. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 70,175 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $36,347,000 after purchasing an additional 1,572 shares during the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 949,901 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $493,860,000 after purchasing an additional 9,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 15.7% in the 4th quarter. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management now owns 12,492 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $6,041,000 after purchasing an additional 1,698 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Arete Research increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $730.00 to $870.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Evercore decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $580.00 to $510.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $575.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $575.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $595.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Thirty-nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $560.88.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is reportedly deepening its AI strategy through talks with Anthropic over use of its Maia AI chips, which could expand demand for Microsoft’s custom silicon and strengthen its position in AI infrastructure. Anthropic in talks to use Microsoft's AI chips, The Information reports
• Positive Sentiment: OpenAI’s reported integration of ChatGPT into Microsoft PowerPoint highlights tighter product tie-ins that could boost adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot and broader enterprise AI usage. ChatGPT Lands in Microsoft PowerPoint
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft and EY announced a $1 billion partnership to accelerate corporate AI adoption, reinforcing expectations that Microsoft can monetize AI across large enterprise customers. Microsoft and EY Team to Promote Corporate AI Adoption
• Positive Sentiment: Several articles and analyst notes framed MSFT as an undervalued momentum name with AI catalysts building, including RBC reiterating a buy rating, which may be supporting shares. Microsoft had its "buy" rating reaffirmed by Royal Bank Of Canada
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is undergoing an internal AI-era leadership reset, including the planned departure of longtime executive Yusuf Mehdi, which signals strategic change but also adds some organizational uncertainty. Microsoft veteran executive Yusuf Mehdi is leaving after the next fiscal year
• Negative Sentiment: Some coverage focused on Microsoft’s GitHub outages and higher AI operating costs, raising questions about execution, infrastructure strain, and whether AI usage is becoming too expensive to scale smoothly. Microsoft's GitHub was positioned to win the AI coding race. Outages got in the way
• Negative Sentiment: The Gates Foundation’s sale of its remaining Microsoft stake was a headline overhang, though it appears more like portfolio rebalancing than a direct read on Microsoft’s fundamentals. The Gates Foundation Sold All of Its Remaining Microsoft Stock. Should Investors Be Worried?

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $418.57 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The firm has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $399.38 and a 200-day moving average price of $437.48. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $356.28 and a 1-year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.46 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. Microsoft's payout ratio is 21.67%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total value of $5,045,695.92. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. The trade was a 8.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total transaction of $519,111.08. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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).

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