Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is Lincoln Capital Corp's 3rd Largest Position

Key Points

• Lincoln Capital Corp trimmed its Microsoft stake by 9.8% in the first quarter, but MSFT remains its third-largest holding at 5.8% of the portfolio, valued at about $15.8 million.
• Microsoft reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings, with EPS of $4.27 on revenue of $82.89 billion, while revenue rose 18.3% year over year.
• Despite continued analyst support and multiple bullish enterprise AI and cloud partnerships, sentiment is mixed as investors weigh heavy AI spending, margin pressure, and regulatory/legal risks.

Lincoln Capital Corp decreased its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 9.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 42,665 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 4,617 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 5.8% of Lincoln Capital Corp's investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Lincoln Capital Corp's holdings in Microsoft were worth $15,793,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Rochester Wealth Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.9% during the third quarter. Rochester Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 700 shares of the software giant's stock worth $363,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 4.9% during the third quarter. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC now owns 431 shares of the software giant's stock worth $223,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Better Money Decisions LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 0.6% during the second quarter. Better Money Decisions LLC now owns 3,498 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,740,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Endowment Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Endowment Wealth Management Inc. now owns 5,251 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,720,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft continues to secure new enterprise AI and cloud partnerships, including expanded collaborations around Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure, which support its long-term AI monetization story.
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s 20-year power agreement tied to its Texas data-center buildout helps de-risk AI infrastructure expansion and supports cloud capacity growth.
• Positive Sentiment: ICON plc selected Microsoft as a preferred technology partner, reinforcing demand for Microsoft’s AI and productivity tools in healthcare and enterprise workflows.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and market commentators remain split: some still view Microsoft as a high-quality AI platform with strong long-term upside, while others say the stock has been oversold and may be approaching a valuation reset.
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft was also named in multiple new or ongoing lawsuits and class-action notices tied to alleged securities issues and copyright claims involving AI training data, adding headline risk but no immediate operating impact yet.
• Negative Sentiment: Stifel cut its price target on Microsoft and said Wall Street’s gross-margin expectations may be too high as Azure growth and AI capex pressure cloud profitability.
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s Xbox price hikes and repeated gaming price increases suggest hardware cost inflation is squeezing a business line that had already been weakening.
• Negative Sentiment: Investor concern over heavy AI spending, shrinking free cash flow, and lower cloud-margin expectations is weighing on sentiment and helping explain why MSFT is falling.
• Negative Sentiment: EU regulators said Microsoft Azure may face stricter “gatekeeper” rules under the Digital Markets Act, raising the possibility of more compliance burden and oversight in Europe.
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s quantum-computing claims also came under renewed criticism, which adds to skepticism around some of its more speculative AI-related initiatives.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $352.83 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.62 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.11. The company's fifty day moving average is $411.13 and its 200-day moving average is $421.81. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $349.20 and a 12 month high of $555.45.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Microsoft's payout ratio is currently 21.67%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total value of $1,812,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 47,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,122,009.12. The trade was a 8.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total value of $519,111.08. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. This trade represents a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. Rothschild & Co Redburn cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. TD Cowen reissued a "buy" rating and set a $540.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. BNP Paribas Exane lowered their target price on Microsoft from $556.00 to $555.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their target price on Microsoft from $595.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Forty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $560.86.

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).

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