Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC Acquires 1,572 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 70,175 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,572 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 5.5% of Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $36,347,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MSFT. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $50,493,678,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter worth $18,733,827,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 49,640.3% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,967,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $14,905,904,000 after buying an additional 29,906,791 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $350,712,742,000 after buying an additional 13,691,572 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Sentiment around enterprise AI improved after comments from Anthropic that helped calm investor fears about AI displacing core software vendors; that reassures Microsoft’s positioning as an AI partner, not a casualty, supporting demand for Azure and Copilot integrations. Article
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft announced a strategic collaboration with SpaceX’s Starlink and said it has surpassed its connectivity target, extending internet access to ~299M people — a commercial and PR win that expands cloud addressable market and supports Azure/Orbital AI use cases. Article
• Positive Sentiment: An insider purchase (director John W. Stanton bought shares) and continued analyst buy/overweight reiterations and high price targets reinforce confidence from some institutional and sell‑side desks amid the pullback. Article
• Neutral Sentiment: The White House is convening Big Tech on a power‑cost pledge for data centers; this could reduce regulatory friction over energy pricing but also raises expectations for industry commitments and disclosures. Article
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft continues product and cloud expansions (sovereign cloud offline AI, partner deployments) that support long‑term enterprise stickiness, but these are longer‑horizon positives and not immediate revenue catalysts. Article
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk rose after reports that Japan’s Fair Trade Commission raided Microsoft Japan over potential restrictions on customers using rival cloud services — this is an active probe that could lead to fines, remedies or contract disruptions in a large market. Article
• Negative Sentiment: Investor unease around Microsoft’s sizable AI capex and OpenAI investment (very large datacenter spending and questions about near‑term ROI) remains a primary driver of recent weakness — analysts and social commentary highlight execution and valuation risks tied to that spend. Article
• Negative Sentiment: High‑profile criticism (e.g., Michael Burry’s social posts alleging aggressive accounting) and broad sector sell‑off narratives add headline risk and can amplify short‑term volatility even if fundamentals remain intact. Article

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total value of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John W. Stanton bought 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $397.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,986,750.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 83,905 shares in the company, valued at $33,339,651.75. This trade represents a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $625.00 to $575.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Citigroup cut their price target on Microsoft from $660.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $630.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, February 1st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $590.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a 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 issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $591.95.

Microsoft Stock Up 3.0%

Microsoft stock opened at $400.66 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.06, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.08. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.39. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $447.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $485.30.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 32.34%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.23 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Microsoft Company 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).