Orleans Capital Management Corp LA Sells 5,318 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Orleans Capital Management Corp LA lowered its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 24.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 16,206 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 5,318 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 5.4% of Orleans Capital Management Corp LA’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Orleans Capital Management Corp LA’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $8,394,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 51.3% during the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the third quarter worth about $49,000. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter worth about $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of Microsoft 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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 137,933 shares in the company, valued at $56,486,322.16. This trade represents a 8.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owned 83,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,339,651.75. The trade was a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.7%

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $401.86 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $2.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 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. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $429.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $476.96.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.The business’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. As a group, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. New Street Research increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $670.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Wolfe Research decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $530.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Two equities research 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.95.

Key Stories Impacting 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

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).