Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC's 7th Largest Position

Key Points

• Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC decreased its Microsoft stake by 11.8% in Q4 to 15,018 shares (worth $7.26M), making MSFT its 7th largest position and 3.9% of the fund's portfolio.
• Several Wall Street analysts have trimmed price targets (recent cuts to the $500–$575 range), but the stock carries a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with a consensus target of $570.
• Market sentiment is mixed: positive catalysts include Accenture rolling out Copilot to ~743,000 employees, while a reworked Microsoft–OpenAI deal that reduces Azure exclusivity and other operational/regulatory issues pose near‑term risks.

Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC decreased its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 11.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 15,018 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 2,014 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 3.9% of Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,263,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. IRON Financial LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 23.2% during the third quarter. IRON Financial LLC now owns 6,510 shares of the software giant's stock worth $3,372,000 after buying an additional 1,225 shares during the period. PMG Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at $828,000. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 70,175 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $36,347,000 after acquiring an additional 1,572 shares in the last quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 14.0% during the 3rd quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 18,340 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $9,499,000 after acquiring an additional 2,247 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 949,901 shares of the software giant's stock worth $493,860,000 after purchasing an additional 9,700 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on Microsoft from $630.00 to $575.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Daiwa Securities Group decreased their target price on Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. BNP Paribas Exane dropped their target price on Microsoft from $659.00 to $556.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Microsoft from $600.00 to $500.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $570.00.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Accenture will deploy Microsoft Copilot to ~743,000 employees, a large enterprise adoption that should boost Microsoft 365/Commercial monetization and validate Copilot demand. Accenture to roll out Copilot to all 743,000 employees in boost for Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: Notable value investor Michael Burry disclosed a new MSFT purchase, a signal some traders view as a contrarian endorsement after recent weakness. Michael Burry Just Bought Microsoft. It’s a Genius Move Worth Following
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts remain broadly constructive but are trimming targets and recalibrating near-term expectations ahead of earnings — Oppenheimer reaffirmed Outperform but cut its PT; Cantor Fitzgerald trimmed its target too. That keeps long‑term thesis intact but raises short‑term uncertainty. Oppenheimer Outperform, PT Cut (Benzinga)
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary and previews (Jefferies, Evercore, others) flag Q3 earnings as pivotal — strong cloud and AI numbers could reignite the rally, so near-term price action will hinge on Wednesday’s print. Microsoft Q3 preview: Jefferies says it's time to reset the narrative
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft and OpenAI rewrote their deal: Microsoft’s exclusive license ends, OpenAI can sell products on AWS/Google Cloud, and Microsoft will stop traditional revenue sharing — a change that reduces Azure’s exclusivity moat and spurred an immediate share pullback as investors price higher cloud competition. Microsoft and OpenAI gut their exclusive deal, freeing OpenAI to sell on AWS and Google Cloud
• Negative Sentiment: Operational and regulatory noise: an Outlook.com sign‑in outage and a new UK antitrust lawsuit from Slack over Teams bundling add execution and legal risk that could weigh on near‑term sentiment. Microsoft says Outlook.com outage is causing sign‑in failures - BleepingComputer Microsoft facing UK antitrust lawsuit from Slack over Teams 'bundling' (Reuters)

Microsoft Stock Up 0.0%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $424.82 on Tuesday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $356.28 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The company has a market capitalization of $3.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.11. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $393.95 and a 200-day moving average of $449.40.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $81.27 billion for 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%.The company's revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.23 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be given a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is presently 22.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total transaction of $5,045,695.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 137,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. This represents a 8.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $397.35 per share, with a total value of $1,986,750.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 83,905 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $33,339,651.75. This represents a 6.34% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

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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