Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Sheets Smith Wealth Management

Sheets Smith Wealth Management reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 9.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,469 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,594 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 0.9% of Sheets Smith Wealth Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Sheets Smith Wealth Management’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $8,012,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. AlphaQuest LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 342 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $170,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC now owns 359 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $178,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Seek First Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.5% during the second quarter. Seek First Inc. now owns 1,358 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $675,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Level Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.8% during the second quarter. Level Financial Advisors now owns 2,680 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,333,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Red Mountain Financial LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 0.7% in the second quarter. Red Mountain Financial LLC now owns 2,761 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,373,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategic AI/data-engineering deal — Microsoft acquired Seattle data‑engineering startup Osmos to automate data pipelines, strengthening Azure’s data and AI stack and supporting enterprise adoption of “autonomous data engineering.” This is a clear product/capability positive for long‑term cloud and AI revenue. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Big investor interest — Peter Thiel’s Thiel Macro built a large new position in Microsoft in Q3, signaling conviction from a high‑profile investor and potentially drawing other allocators to MSFT. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst bullishness — prominent analysts (e.g., Dan Ives/Wedbush) call 2026 an “inflection” year for Microsoft and RBC reiterated its buy rating, underpinning buy‑side confidence and supporting higher price targets. Read More. | Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Positive narrative reinforcement — several opinion pieces and newsletters are pushing Microsoft as a preferred AI play vs. competitors, which may support medium‑term flows but offers less immediate market impact than hard news. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Investor skepticism on AI leadership — traders are parsing Microsoft’s AI edge relative to Google, and that debate has pressured the stock as investors weigh differentiation, products, and margin risk in AI. This dynamic likely explains near‑term selling pressure. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling and social chatter — summaries of social media and insider activity show heavy insider sales (no recent buys) and mixed retail sentiment, which can sap confidence among momentum traders. Monitor insider activity disclosures for further market reaction. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Reputational/political risk — coverage that Microsoft (and McKinsey) helped fund a politically sensitive US “Davos” hub has drawn criticism; while not a core earnings issue, such PR events can prompt short‑term outflows from ESG‑sensitive funds. Read More.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total value of $6,266,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,577,620.48. This represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.0%

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $472.85 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $492.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $503.98. The stock has a market cap of $3.51 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. The business had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The firm’s revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.30 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus set a $640.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 20th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Microsoft from $640.00 to $655.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $675.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $631.03.

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).