Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Rheos Capital Works Inc.

Rheos Capital Works Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 107,800 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 6,500 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 3.1% of Rheos Capital Works Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position. Rheos Capital Works Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $55,835,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth about $50,493,678,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $45,040,162,000 after buying an additional 90,533,328 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth approximately $18,733,827,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 49,640.3% during the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,967,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,905,904,000 after buying an additional 29,906,791 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $350,712,742,000 after acquiring an additional 13,691,572 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $465.95 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $478.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $501.21. The company has a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.30 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 25.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. This represents a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at $239,402,668.08. The trade was a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Key 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

MSFT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $650.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. HSBC lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $643.00 to $648.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $625.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. Barclays decreased their target price on Microsoft from $625.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price target on Microsoft from $639.00 to $590.00 in a research report on Thursday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $618.18.

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).