Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is Sterling Investment Management LLC's 6th Largest Position

Key Points

• Sterling Investment Management LLC boosted its Microsoft stake by 59.8% in the fourth quarter, bringing its holdings to 14,497 shares worth about $7.0 million. Microsoft is now its 6th-largest position and makes up 4.0% of the portfolio.
• Microsoft continues to draw strong institutional and analyst support, with hedge funds owning 71.13% of the stock and analysts maintaining a Moderate Buy consensus. The average price target is $561.20, reflecting optimism about the company’s longer-term outlook.
• The company reported solid quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue estimates, and recently announced a $0.91 quarterly dividend. Microsoft also highlighted new AI initiatives and partnerships, including in-house AI models, Microsoft Scout, and deeper work with Nvidia.

Sterling Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 59.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 14,497 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 5,423 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 4.0% of Sterling Investment Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Sterling Investment Management LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,011,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its holdings 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 during the last quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC raised its holdings 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 during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $44,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter worth $49,000. Finally, Daytona Street Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

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 Activity

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total value of $7,145,345.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total transaction of $5,045,695.92. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. This trade represents a 8.20% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 29,083 shares of company stock worth $12,710,152 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Benchmark restated a "buy" rating and set a $525.00 price target (up from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Citizens Jmp initiated coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday. They set a "market outperform" rating and a $550.00 price target on the stock. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $550.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Dbs Bank dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $678.00 to $573.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $392.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Forty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $561.20.

Microsoft Stock Down 4.2%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $441.31 on Wednesday. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $403.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $433.78. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $356.28 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The firm has a market cap of $3.28 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.11. 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The business had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.46 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be given a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend 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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