Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Littlejohn Financial Services Inc.

Littlejohn Financial Services Inc. trimmed its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 34.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,614 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,427 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 1.7% of Littlejohn Financial Services Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Littlejohn Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,390,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Bayforest Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter valued at about $38,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $44,000. University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter worth about $50,000. Finally, ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 155.7% during the first quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 156 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $59,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $393.67 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.92 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.38. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $470.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $496.99. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.Microsoft’s revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.23 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be given a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 22.76%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total value of $6,266,880.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at $63,577,620.48. This represents a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total value 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 represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft beat Q2 expectations on Jan. 28 and reported a record cloud quarter, supporting the long-term growth case for Azure and Copilot adoption improvements. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Certain analysts remain bullish: TD Cowen and Piper Sandler reiterated Buy/Overweight views and high price targets (~$600+), arguing Microsoft remains a top AI hyperscaler play despite near-term noise. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is partnering with the UK government on deepfake detection — a credibility/PR positive but limited near-term revenue impact. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Management changes in security leadership and commercial reorganization indicate ongoing operational adjustments; these are execution items investors should monitor. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Stifel issued a rare downgrade to Hold, flagging slower Azure growth, rising AI infrastructure and inference costs, and tougher cloud competition (Google, Anthropic). That downgrade catalyzed much of today’s selling. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts and media highlight OpenAI-related liabilities, Copilot adoption slippage and product usability problems — these raise questions about near-term monetization of AI investments. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Price-target trims and broad software-sector rotation amplified the move; multiple outlets cited analyst cuts and hedge-fund positioning as technical selling pressure. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Market worry over AI capex and margin pressure: some notes point to heavy near-term GPU/inference spending that could compress margins before revenue from AI products scales. Read More.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on MSFT. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $640.00 to $520.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Daiwa Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $580.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, UBS Group reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $593.28.

Microsoft Company 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).