Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stake Increased by Rakuten Investment Management Inc.

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 7,429.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,107,445 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 1,092,736 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 1.8% of Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $539,436,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 717,942,580 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $347,211,391,000 after acquiring an additional 15,955,898 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Microsoft by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 306,150,608 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $148,060,557,000 after acquiring an additional 6,388,930 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 182,618,400 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $88,056,019,000 after acquiring an additional 1,911,142 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 121,220,561 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $58,624,690,000 after acquiring an additional 980,439 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $50,664,631,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. China Renaissance decreased their target price on Microsoft from $630.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Microsoft from $600.00 to $550.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Microsoft from $392.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 9th. Finally, Raymond James Financial lowered Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Forty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $561.20.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total transaction of $519,111.08. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at $18,922,874.02. This represents a 2.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total value of $1,812,780.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 47,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,122,009.12. This represents a 8.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft launched a new AI agent with pay-as-you-go pricing, a shift that could improve monetization and help the company capture more revenue as customers adopt usage-based AI tools.
• Positive Sentiment: Reports say Microsoft is exploring lower-cost AI model options for Copilot, which could reduce infrastructure costs and improve profitability if implemented successfully.
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s product and AI roadmap continues to attract long-term bulls, with analysts and investors still pointing to the company’s strong enterprise position and AI-driven growth potential.
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft was reported to have held talks for a $3 billion Oracle cloud infrastructure lease, but the deal reportedly collapsed over security and compliance issues, limiting any near-term impact on operations.
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage around a possible Xbox restructuring or spin-off highlights strategic uncertainty in gaming, though it could eventually improve Microsoft’s overall margin profile if the division is separated or reshaped.
• Negative Sentiment: Shareholders filed a class action and securities-fraud investigations were announced over alleged misstatements tied to Azure growth and AI spending, creating legal and reputational overhang for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Microsoft may shut down or restructure Xbox studios add to concerns that the gaming segment is a drag on profitability and could require more restructuring costs.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent commentary also points to heavy AI capital expenditures and softer Azure growth, reinforcing investor worries that Microsoft’s spending is rising faster than its cloud revenue growth.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $393.83 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.93 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.11. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $412.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $427.45. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $356.28 and a 12 month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The company’s revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.46 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.67%.

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).