Sawgrass Asset Management LLC Sells 15,296 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Sawgrass Asset Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 13.8% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 95,462 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 15,296 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 6.1% of Sawgrass Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $49,445,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Heritage Investment Group Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Heritage Investment Group Inc. now owns 5,643 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,923,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. TFR Capital LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% during the third quarter. TFR Capital LLC. now owns 36,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $18,654,000 after acquiring an additional 618 shares during the period. FSB Premier Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in Microsoft by 12.5% in the 3rd quarter. FSB Premier Wealth Management Inc. now owns 11,436 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,923,000 after acquiring an additional 1,270 shares in the last quarter. BLB&B Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. BLB&B Advisors LLC now owns 153,198 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $79,349,000 after purchasing an additional 2,644 shares during the period. Finally, Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC now owns 114,637 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $59,376,000 after purchasing an additional 4,932 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $398.46 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $453.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $489.29. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.28. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 32.34%. The company had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.23 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be given a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.76%.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft locked in a long‑duration revenue arrangement with OpenAI (20% share extended through 2032), creating a sizeable, recurring cash‑flow channel tied to the AI leader — a clear structural upside for MSFT’s AI monetization thesis. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Insider buying: director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares (~$2M), a behavioral vote of confidence that can help stabilize sentiment after recent weakness. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street / institutional interest: Morgan Stanley and other firms highlight MSFT as under‑owned and many hedge funds/institutions have added to positions or maintained positive ratings — supports potential inflows if risk appetite returns. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: ESG/operational: Microsoft commits to continue matching its electricity needs with renewable purchases as it scales data‑centers, lowering regulatory/ESG risk for long‑term investors. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Growth vs. capex trade: Microsoft says it’s on pace to invest ~$50B in AI across the Global South by 2030 — a large, long‑term market expansion but one that requires heavy upfront capex and multi‑year execution. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Partnerships/enterprise traction: CrowdStrike’s Falcon is now available on Microsoft Marketplace, which increases enterprise stickiness and could drive incremental marketplace revenue over time (limited immediate impact). Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry moves (indirect effect): NVIDIA and Meta deepen their AI alliance and huge capex plans — this underscores relentless demand for compute but also signals competitors (Meta) spending to build infrastructure that could reduce future cloud demand. Implication for MSFT is mixed. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Near‑term selling and rotation: several pieces point to investor dumping and downgrades after a strong earnings beat — concerns that MSFT’s massive AI infrastructure spending will pressure near‑term margins have triggered profit‑taking and volatility. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Product/security jitters and sector pressure: reports of an Office/Copilot bug and research on “recommendation poisoning,” together with tech‑sector downgrades, amplify short‑term adoption and regulatory risk narratives. Read More. Read More.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total transaction of $6,266,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total transaction of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Wolfe Research cut their price target on Microsoft from $625.00 to $530.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Mizuho cut their target price on Microsoft from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $392.00 price objective (down from $540.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective (down previously from $650.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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).