Insider Selling: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Sells 86,525 Shares of Stock

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total transaction of $43,388,826.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 486,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $244,092,173.98. This trade represents a 15.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT traded down $4.20 on Wednesday, hitting $496.82. 15,317,316 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 36,380,363. The firm has a market cap of $3.69 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.11. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $349.20 and a twelve month high of $553.72. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $436.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $413.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The company had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%.Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.65 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.27%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 4.9% in the third quarter. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC now owns 431 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $223,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Fischer Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Fischer Investment Strategies LLC now owns 697 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $337,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the period. Box Hill Private Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the second quarter. Box Hill Private Wealth LLC now owns 4,272 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,593,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pollock Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% during the third quarter. Pollock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,805 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,453,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the period. 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 will begin disclosing Azure revenue in dollars each quarter and consolidate its internal reporting structure from three segments to two. The change should give investors a clearer comparison with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud and may improve visibility into whether AI-related infrastructure spending is translating into cloud growth. Microsoft to start disclosing Azure quarterly revenue as company consolidates business units
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America raised its Microsoft price target to $600 from $500, citing accelerating Azure growth, expanding Copilot adoption and improving efficiency from AI investments. The target implies meaningful additional upside and reinforces the bullish view of Microsoft’s enterprise AI platform. Investors Are Missing Microsoft’s Biggest AI Edge, Analyst Says
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s AI infrastructure expansion continues through new data-center capacity, a long-term power agreement with Chevron and regional partnerships with HUMAIN. These initiatives could support Azure capacity and AI-product adoption, although they also increase capital requirements. Microsoft Signed a 20-Year AI Power Deal With Chevron
• Neutral Sentiment: The European Union’s second-highest court rejected Opera’s challenge to Microsoft Edge’s exemption from certain Digital Markets Act gatekeeper rules. The ruling removes one regulatory challenge for Edge, but its near-term financial effect appears limited. EU court rejects Opera challenge against Microsoft Edge exemption
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain focused on whether Microsoft can earn attractive returns on its large AI capital expenditures. The scale of data-center spending raises depreciation and capacity-utilization risks if demand or monetization lags expectations. One Trillion-Dollar Question Could Determine Where Microsoft Stock Goes Next
• Negative Sentiment: Additional overhangs include concerns that OpenAI’s increasingly capable models could complicate Microsoft’s AI partnership and that a controversial Windows 11 feature may alienate gamers. Recent Xbox job cuts also highlight pressure on the gaming business. Why OpenAI’s smartest new model could become a headache for Microsoft stock

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, July 20th. Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $490.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Microsoft from $680.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Forty-two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $562.49.

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).