Kozak & Associates Inc. Has $25.74 Million Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Kozak & Associates Inc. cut its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 50,725 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,945 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 4.9% of Kozak & Associates Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Kozak & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $25,743,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its holdings in 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 buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter valued at about $38,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter worth about $49,000. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth about $50,000. Finally, LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.1%

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

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, Director John W. Stanton acquired 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $397.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,986,750.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 83,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,339,651.75. The trade was a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total value of $5,045,695.92. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. This represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Microsoft from $630.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Wall Street Zen lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, January 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $575.00 to $550.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $600.00 price objective (down 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, forty have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $591.95.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

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

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).