Danske Bank A S Invests $2.60 Billion in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Danske Bank A S purchased a new position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 5,019,029 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $2,599,606,000. Microsoft accounts for about 6.5% of Danske Bank A S’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Danske Bank A S owned approximately 0.07% of Microsoft as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. IRON Financial LLC lifted its stake in 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 buying an additional 1,225 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Microsoft during the second quarter worth $9,941,000. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.6% in the second quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 94,120 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $46,816,000 after acquiring an additional 2,373 shares during the last quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% in the third quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 70,175 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,347,000 after acquiring an additional 1,572 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Weaver Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 14.0% in the third 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. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Management unifies commercial and consumer Copilot teams to create a single Copilot product roadmap and experience; Jacob Andreou will lead Copilot work while Mustafa Suleyman shifts toward model research — a move investors view as improving focus and speeding product coherence/adoption. Microsoft unifies Copilot commercial and consumer product teams in unit rejig
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft Research collaborates on a MicroLED-powered Active Optical Cable design with MediaTek to improve data‑center power efficiency — a technology that could lower operating costs for large-scale AI infrastructure over time. MediaTek Develops Active Optical Cable Technology with Microsoft Research
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is named as a collaborator in large AI compute deployments (Nscale’s West Virginia AI campus), reinforcing demand for Azure and cloud services tied to AI GPU capacity. That supports long‑run cloud revenue upside. Nscale and Microsoft Announce Collaboration with NVIDIA and Caterpillar
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft reports progress on healthcare AI (MAI-DxO) with strong diagnostic results in testing; promising for long-term TAM but commercial and regulatory paths remain uncertain. Microsoft Pushes Toward ‘Medical Superintelligence’ in Healthcare
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader tech competition in quantum computing intensifies (IBM ramping hybrid quantum-classical work); Microsoft is active in quantum but the landscape remains long‑term and uncertain. The New Threat IBM’s Quantum Computing Research Poses to D-Wave
• Negative Sentiment: Security concern: reporting suggests Microsoft Intune tooling may have been used in an attack on Stryker — raises questions about enterprise security controls and could spur customer scrutiny or contract risk if such incidents scale. Microsoft Stock (NASDAQ:MSFT) Slips, Intune Tool May Have Been Used Against Stryker

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. This represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $397.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,986,750.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 83,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,339,651.75. This trade represents a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $399.41 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $424.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $474.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The company has a market capitalization of $2.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.28. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.The company had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $80.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.23 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on MSFT. Daiwa Securities Group decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Wolfe Research decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $530.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $520.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $586.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $591.95.

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).