Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stake Reduced by Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P.

Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lowered its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 21.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 592,239 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 159,908 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 2.8% of Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P.’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $306,750,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% during the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 386.7% in the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,000. University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 155.7% during the 1st quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 156 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: New AI and robotics announcements — Microsoft unveiled robotics/agentic AI initiatives and pushed further into agentic AI for retail and frontline use, boosting enthusiasm that its product roadmap will translate into revenue from AI workloads. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Defense cloud contract — Microsoft won a sizable Air Force Cloud One task order (~$170M) that validates Azure’s position in government/defense spending and provides a tangible near‑term revenue win. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Investor reassessment of valuation — After recent weakness MSFT is seeing a rebound as analysts and market commentators highlight Microsoft’s relative growth, profitability and balance‑sheet strength versus software peers. That sentiment helped the stock move back up today. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reaffirmations and mixed targets — Several firms (Jefferies, Guggenheim, UBS) kept Buy ratings even as many groups trimmed price targets; that leaves a mix of support and pressure in the tape heading into earnings. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple price‑target cuts and downgrades — A wave of target trims (Cantor Fitzgerald, Wells Fargo adjustments, Rothschild/Redburn cuts and other downgrades) is adding selling pressure and keeps expectations muted into the Jan. 28 earnings print. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Service outages and security/privacy headlines — Recent widespread Microsoft 365/Outlook outages disrupted customers and raised reliability concerns; separate reports about providing BitLocker recovery keys to the FBI introduce potential reputational/privacy scrutiny. Read More.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of Microsoft 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at $239,402,668.08. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $465.95 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $478.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $501.21. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. The firm had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.30 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MSFT. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Wall Street Zen cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, January 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Microsoft to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $618.18.

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).