Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd Increases Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,345,944 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,888 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 5.1% of Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $650,925,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wilson Asset Management International PTY Ltd. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 13.2% in the fourth quarter. Wilson Asset Management International PTY Ltd. now owns 12,447 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,020,000 after acquiring an additional 1,447 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 17,184 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,311,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Garner Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Garner Asset Management Corp now owns 8,752 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,232,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Liberty Atlantic Advisors LLC bought a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth approximately $610,000. Finally, Alpha Cubed Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 304,424 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,226,000 after acquiring an additional 12,464 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft unveiled new in-house AI models at Build, including MAI-Code-1 and MAI-Thinking-1, signaling it is reducing reliance on OpenAI and Anthropic while lowering costs for developers.
• Positive Sentiment: The company introduced Microsoft Scout, an always-on personal agent for Microsoft 365, and other agentic AI tools, reinforcing the view that Microsoft is expanding its AI monetization opportunities.
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft and Nvidia deepened their partnership on AI PCs and agentic computing across Windows and Azure, which investors viewed as a major catalyst for the Windows ecosystem and future hardware/software demand.
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft also highlighted its quantum computing progress with the Majorana 2 chip, adding to the company’s long-term innovation narrative.
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple analysts and media reports remained constructive, with commentary pointing to strong Azure upside, AI demand, and a favorable long-term valuation case for MSFT.
• Neutral Sentiment: Build 2026 generated broad attention across the market, but some reports noted Microsoft teased a Copilot “Super App” without fully unveiling it, which may have tempered expectations.
• Negative Sentiment: Judson Althoff sold 15,500 Microsoft shares in an SEC-disclosed transaction, which can create short-term investor concern even though the sale was relatively modest versus his remaining holdings.
• Negative Sentiment: Some coverage cited profit-taking and concerns about capital intensity, margin pressure, and a possible AI policy overhang, helping explain the pullback despite the positive product news.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the topic of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Microsoft from $575.00 to $505.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Microsoft from $675.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $586.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Forty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $561.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,928,792.23. This trade represents a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares in the company, valued at $56,486,322.16. This trade represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 29,083 shares of company stock worth $12,710,152. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Stock Down 4.2%

MSFT stock opened at $441.31 on Wednesday. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $356.28 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $403.52 and its 200-day moving average is $433.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.28 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.11.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.21. The business 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%.Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.46 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.67%.

Microsoft Company 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).