Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is Stack Financial Management Inc's 2nd Largest Position

Key Points

• Stack Financial Management trimmed its Microsoft stake by 2% in the fourth quarter, but Microsoft remains its 2nd-largest holding at 8.4% of assets, worth about $109.6 million.
• Microsoft reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $4.27 and revenue of $82.89 billion, both above Wall Street expectations. Revenue rose 18.3% year over year, reinforcing solid business momentum.
• Analyst sentiment remains constructive, with 40 Buy ratings and an average target price of $561.20. Recent insider selling, including a notable share sale by CEO Judson Althoff, may have added some short-term caution.

Stack Financial Management Inc lowered its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 226,629 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 4,536 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 8.4% of Stack Financial Management Inc's holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Stack Financial Management Inc's holdings in Microsoft were worth $109,602,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% during the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC lifted its position 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 purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $44,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter worth $49,000. Finally, Daytona Street Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft unveiled new in-house AI models at Build, including MAI-Code-1 and MAI-Thinking-1, signaling it is reducing reliance on OpenAI and Anthropic while lowering costs for developers.
• Positive Sentiment: The company introduced Microsoft Scout, an always-on personal agent for Microsoft 365, and other agentic AI tools, reinforcing the view that Microsoft is expanding its AI monetization opportunities.
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft and Nvidia deepened their partnership on AI PCs and agentic computing across Windows and Azure, which investors viewed as a major catalyst for the Windows ecosystem and future hardware/software demand.
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft also highlighted its quantum computing progress with the Majorana 2 chip, adding to the company’s long-term innovation narrative.
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple analysts and media reports remained constructive, with commentary pointing to strong Azure upside, AI demand, and a favorable long-term valuation case for MSFT.
• Neutral Sentiment: Build 2026 generated broad attention across the market, but some reports noted Microsoft teased a Copilot “Super App” without fully unveiling it, which may have tempered expectations.
• Negative Sentiment: Judson Althoff sold 15,500 Microsoft shares in an SEC-disclosed transaction, which can create short-term investor concern even though the sale was relatively modest versus his remaining holdings.
• Negative Sentiment: Some coverage cited profit-taking and concerns about capital intensity, margin pressure, and a possible AI policy overhang, helping explain the pullback despite the positive product news.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at $50,928,792.23. This trade represents a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at $18,922,874.02. This trade represents a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 29,083 shares of company stock worth $12,710,152 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $575.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $500.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Daiwa Securities Group reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday. They set a "market outperform" rating on the stock. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on Microsoft from $595.00 to $680.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Forty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $561.20.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $441.31 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.28 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $403.52 and a 200-day moving average of $433.78. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $356.28 and a 52 week high of $555.45.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.67%.

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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