Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Xponance Inc.

Xponance Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,830,292 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 47,061 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 7.5% of Xponance Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $948,000,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% in the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd acquired a new position in Microsoft during the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $44,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter valued at about $49,000. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director John W. Stanton acquired 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $397.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,986,750.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 83,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,339,651.75. This trade represents a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total transaction of $5,045,695.92. Following the completion of the transaction, 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.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.2%

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $404.88 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $430.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $477.49. The company has a market capitalization of $3.01 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.10. 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.28. The company had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.23 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be issued a $0.91 dividend. 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 (DPR) is 22.76%.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Azure AI and Copilot adoption remain the principal growth engine: continued strong cloud revenue and higher Azure consumption from AI workloads support long?term earnings upside. Will Microsoft Stock Climb as Azure AI Services Gain Traction?
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft filed an amicus brief backing Anthropic in its suit versus the DoD — a move that protects access to Anthropic models for many customers and helps preserve Azure compute demand tied to that partnership. Microsoft files amicus brief
• Positive Sentiment: New monetization levers (a $99 “Frontier” AI subscription and deeper OpenAI/Anthropic integrations) increase potential ARPU from Office/365 and enterprise suites. This supports revenue upside if adoption scales. Microsoft Unveils $99 ‘Frontier’ AI Subscription
• Positive Sentiment: Board declared a quarterly dividend ($0.91), reaffirming capital returns and making MSFT more attractive to income?oriented investors. Microsoft announces quarterly dividend
• Neutral Sentiment: Console roadmap: Microsoft will ship next?gen Xbox prototypes to developers in 2027 — positive for long term product pipeline but limited near?term revenue impact. Microsoft plans to ship prototype of next Xbox
• Neutral Sentiment: Site and data?center activity (interest in Oracle’s Abilene/Stargate site and talks to lease a Texas AI data center) signals continued infrastructure expansion — supports Azure capacity but implies heavy capex. Microsoft in talks to lease Texas AI data center site
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and rising AI capex are a near?term drag: analysts note MSFT trades at a premium P/S while heavy AI infrastructure spending could pressure margins and justify investor caution. The Zacks Analyst Blog
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling (an EVP sold roughly $5.0M of stock) and a noticeable rise in short interest suggest some near?term skeptical positioning by market participants. EVP stock sale
• Negative Sentiment: Broader market volatility and midterm?year election season risk are pressuring tech names; macro/geopolitical headlines could amplify short?term selling even if Microsoft’s fundamentals remain intact. Market Crash Warning?

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MSFT. Phillip Securities raised shares of Microsoft from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Sunday, February 1st. Wedbush decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $575.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird set a $540.00 target price on Microsoft and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price target on Microsoft from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock 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 assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $591.95.

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).