Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Rempart Asset Management Inc.

Rempart Asset Management Inc. cut its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 64,098 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,557 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 6.1% of Rempart Asset Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Rempart Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $33,200,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in MSFT. AlphaQuest LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 342 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $170,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC now owns 359 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $178,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Seek First Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.5% in the second quarter. Seek First Inc. now owns 1,358 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $675,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Level Financial Advisors grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Red Mountain Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the second quarter. Red Mountain Financial LLC now owns 2,761 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,373,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total transaction of $1,364,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,703,959.04. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $239,402,668.08. The trade was a 7.70% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the topic of several research reports. Redburn Partners set a $450.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 15th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Raymond James Financial lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Arete Research upped their price objective on Microsoft from $710.00 to $730.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $618.18.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $465.95 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $478.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $501.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.40. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $3.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.14, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The company had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.30 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

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.

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).