Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Purchases 99,660 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,959,599 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 99,660 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 7.2% of Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest holding. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,568,825,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 51.3% in the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $38,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at $49,000. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at $50,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Sell‑side support remains strong — several firms have reiterated buys/outperform and bullish price targets, which underpins long‑term investor confidence. William Blair reiterates Outperform on Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: Product/AI momentum — Microsoft is rolling out Copilot Health, agentic Copilot features across Office apps, and the new Microsoft 365 E7 AI bundle (adds Anthropic Claude Cowork, Agent 365, Entra), all of which support higher‑value commercial monetization and stickier cloud revenue. Copilot Health paves path to medical superintelligence
• Positive Sentiment: Social and trader sentiment is highlighting agentic Copilot and AI infrastructure leadership as reasons for near‑term support and potential upside if resistance breaks. Quiver Quant summary of Agentic Copilot buzz
• Neutral Sentiment: Xbox roadmap and gaming hardware (Project Helix prototypes to developers in 2027) bolster long‑term diversification but have limited near‑term revenue impact. CNBC on Project Helix
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst price targets remain elevated (median targets well above current levels) and institutional positioning is mixed — supportive for a medium‑term recovery but not an immediate catalyst. Zacks on analyst views
• Negative Sentiment: High and rising capital expenditures for AI data centers are a near‑term earnings headwind; investor letters and coverage flag capex intensity as a reason MSFT has underperformed peers despite strong top‑line growth. InsiderMonkey on data center capex concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Leadership change — Rajesh Jha, a senior exec tied to Office/Copilot rollouts, is retiring; markets tend to discount execution risk when key product leaders depart. Reuters on Rajesh Jha retirement
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/political risk — Microsoft’s public support for Anthropic in its legal fight with the Pentagon raises short‑term uncertainty around government contracting and could create customer/contract exposure. FT: Microsoft backs Anthropic vs Pentagon
• Negative Sentiment: Macro and market‑structure risk — rotation out of megacap tech and warnings about midterm‑year volatility are pressuring MSFT along with peers. Technical support levels around the recent pullback are being watched by traders. MarketBeat mid‑March market warning

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. DZ Bank reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Robert W. Baird set a $540.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Microsoft from $630.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $591.95.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.7%

Microsoft stock opened at $401.86 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $429.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $476.96. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results 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 net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 32.34%. The company had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be paid a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 22.76%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, Director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $397.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,986,750.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 83,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,339,651.75. This represents a 6.34% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 137,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $56,486,322.16. The trade was a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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).