Maple Capital Management Inc. Acquires 2,133 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

19 Mar 2026, 09:44 by Danessa Lincoln · The Markets Daily

Maple Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 0.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 263,387 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 2,133 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 9.0% of Maple Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Maple Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $136,421,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AlphaQuest LLC boosted 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 boosted its position 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 last quarter. Foundation Wealth Management LLC PA grew its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the third quarter. Magnolia Capital Management Ltd. now owns 6,509 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,371,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ARK & TLK Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the third 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 last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, Director John W. Stanton acquired 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $397.35 per share, with a total value of $1,986,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 83,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,339,651.75. This represents a 6.34% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total value of $5,045,695.92. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $56,486,322.16. This represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wolfe Research reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $530.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 29th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. HSBC reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $667.00 to $588.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “hold” rating and issued a $392.00 price objective (down from $540.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 9th. Two equities research 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.95.

Get Our Latest Research Report on MSFT

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Positive Sentiment: Company unifies Copilot commercial and consumer teams to simplify product roadmaps and boost adoption — a move management says will improve coherence across enterprise and consumer experiences. Microsoft unifies Copilot commercial and consumer product teams in unit rejig (Reuters)
Positive Sentiment: Product updates expand Microsoft’s AI footprint (Copilot, Agent 365, Foundry ecosystem) — these releases and partnerships aim to drive enterprise spending and stickier Microsoft 365 monetization. Microsoft Expands AI Strategy with Copilot and Agent 365 Updates (Yahoo Finance)
Positive Sentiment: Talent and product hires: Microsoft acquired the Cove team (AI collaboration board) and other engineering talent to accelerate collaboration features — a low-cost way to shore up product capabilities. Microsoft hires the team of Sequoia-backed AI collaboration platform, Cove (TechCrunch)
Positive Sentiment: Partnership R&D: Microsoft Research collaborated with MediaTek on microLED-powered optical cables to improve data-center power efficiency — supports Azure infrastructure competitiveness. MediaTek Develops Active Optical Cable Technology with Microsoft Research (PR Newswire)
Neutral Sentiment: Enterprise AI UX battle: Microsoft, Google and Anthropic are embedding AI into spreadsheets (Excel vs. Sheets), a trend that could expand enterprise AI use but raises competition and margin questions. Microsoft, Google and Anthropic Channel Enterprise AI Use With Spreadsheets (PYMNTS)
Negative Sentiment: Legal overhang: Microsoft is reportedly weighing legal action against Amazon and OpenAI over a reported $50B cloud deal — potential litigation and a deteriorating OpenAI relationship add strategic and execution risk for MSFT’s exclusive-cloud positioning. Microsoft weighs legal action over $50 billion Amazon-OpenAI cloud deal (Reuters)
Negative Sentiment: AI execution concerns and leadership shuffle: Coverage noting product gaps (competition from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic) and the reassignment of Mustafa Suleyman have sparked debate about near-term AI competitiveness despite the broader reorg. That uncertainty is likely contributing to selling pressure. Microsoft reshuffles AI team to catch up on Copilot and model building (FT)

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $391.79 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $2.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $422.59 and a 200-day moving average of $473.71. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.38.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $80.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.23 EPS. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Microsoft Profile

(Free Report)

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).

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