Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Bought by OneAscent Investment Solutions LLC

OneAscent Investment Solutions LLC increased its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 63.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 5,494 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 2,141 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 3.0% of OneAscent Investment Solutions LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. OneAscent Investment Solutions LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,846,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. AlphaQuest LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 5.9% during the second quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 342 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $170,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the period. BLVD Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. BLVD Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,169 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,641,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares during the period. Foundation Wealth Management LLC PA grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Foundation Wealth Management LLC PA now owns 1,276 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $635,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Magnolia Capital Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Magnolia Capital Management Ltd. now owns 6,509 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,371,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ARK & TLK Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. ARK & TLK Investments LLC now owns 1,935 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,002,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Melius Research set a $430.00 target price on Microsoft in a report on Monday, February 9th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. UBS Group reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $590.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating 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 given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $591.95.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $401.72 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.12, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.39. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $445.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $484.72.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.23 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and AI strategists argue Microsoft is a core AI infrastructure winner — a driver for investor interest given Azure, identity/auth layers and high switching costs that position MSFT to benefit from AI-driven enterprise spending. AI Is Separating Software Winners From Losers
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s new collaboration with Starlink signals expanded connectivity and potential Azure edge use cases (rural/remote customers), supporting cloud revenue optionality and positive sentiment around partnership-driven growth. Microsoft Is Teaming up With Starlink
• Positive Sentiment: An insider purchase (director John Stanton) added a small but visible vote of confidence after the post-earnings sell-off, which can support short-term sentiment and stabilize shares. Director Stanton John Just Bought $2 Million of Microsoft Stock
• Neutral Sentiment: The White House’s planned power-cost pledge with big cloud/data-center firms (including Microsoft) reduces one operational risk for hyperscalers and could be a modest long-term positive for data-center economics, though timing/implementation remain uncertain. White House to host Big Tech pledge
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Satya Nadella’s public comments pushing back on low-quality “AI slop” reflect management trying to shape the narrative around responsible, enterprise-grade AI — a reputational plus but contributed to short-term volatility as markets parsed the tone. Satya Nadella Rails Against AI Slop
• Negative Sentiment: Japan’s Fair Trade Commission raided Microsoft Japan offices in a probe into possible restrictions around Azure customers using rival cloud services — this antitrust scrutiny is an immediate regulatory overhang that can hurt sentiment and add legal/operational uncertainty. Microsoft Japan raided over suspected violation of anti-monopoly law
• Negative Sentiment: Market debate continues over Azure growth pacing vs. very large AI infrastructure capex (management flagged elevated AI-related investment), which knocked the stock after Q2 despite beats — investors are weighing near-term margin/cash impact against longer-term AI revenue upside. Microsoft Stock Opinions on Fiscal Q2 Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Broader sector risks — heightened talk of AI regulation and a Magnificent Seven rotation — keep pressure on valuations and can amplify moves in MSFT even when fundamentals are solid; this contributes to volatility until clarity on regulation and data-center costs emerges. Will Regulating AI Cripple AI Stocks?

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, Director John W. Stanton acquired 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $397.35 per share, with a total value of $1,986,750.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 83,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,339,651.75. The trade was a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 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 sale, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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).