Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Abundance Wealth Counselors

Abundance Wealth Counselors reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 21,602 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,120 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 1.9% of Abundance Wealth Counselors’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Abundance Wealth Counselors’ holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,189,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 51.3% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% during the 2nd quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $50,000. Finally, ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 155.7% in the 1st quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 156 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Trading Up 3.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $465.95 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.07. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $478.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $501.18.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: New AI and robotics announcements — Microsoft unveiled robotics/agentic AI initiatives and pushed further into agentic AI for retail and frontline use, boosting enthusiasm that its product roadmap will translate into revenue from AI workloads. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Defense cloud contract — Microsoft won a sizable Air Force Cloud One task order (~$170M) that validates Azure’s position in government/defense spending and provides a tangible near‑term revenue win. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Investor reassessment of valuation — After recent weakness MSFT is seeing a rebound as analysts and market commentators highlight Microsoft’s relative growth, profitability and balance‑sheet strength versus software peers. That sentiment helped the stock move back up today. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reaffirmations and mixed targets — Several firms (Jefferies, Guggenheim, UBS) kept Buy ratings even as many groups trimmed price targets; that leaves a mix of support and pressure in the tape heading into earnings. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple price‑target cuts and downgrades — A wave of target trims (Cantor Fitzgerald, Wells Fargo adjustments, Rothschild/Redburn cuts and other downgrades) is adding selling pressure and keeps expectations muted into the Jan. 28 earnings print. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Service outages and security/privacy headlines — Recent widespread Microsoft 365/Outlook outages disrupted customers and raised reliability concerns; separate reports about providing BitLocker recovery keys to the FBI introduce potential reputational/privacy scrutiny. Read More.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. UBS Group reduced their target price on Microsoft from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $690.00 to $660.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $639.00 to $590.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wolfe Research reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $618.18.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total transaction of $6,266,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. This represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at $239,402,668.08. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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).