Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd Has $1.52 Million Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lowered its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 60.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,943 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 4,551 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 1.1% of Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,524,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at $50,493,678,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at $18,733,827,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 500.0% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 59,543,261 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $30,840,432,000 after acquiring an additional 49,618,571 shares during the period. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted 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 acquiring an additional 29,906,791 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during 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 in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $399.41 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.97 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $424.42 and a 200-day moving average of $474.29.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.28. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.The business had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.23 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be paid a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.76%.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Management unifies commercial and consumer Copilot teams to create a single Copilot product roadmap and experience; Jacob Andreou will lead Copilot work while Mustafa Suleyman shifts toward model research — a move investors view as improving focus and speeding product coherence/adoption. Microsoft unifies Copilot commercial and consumer product teams in unit rejig
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft Research collaborates on a MicroLED-powered Active Optical Cable design with MediaTek to improve data‑center power efficiency — a technology that could lower operating costs for large-scale AI infrastructure over time. MediaTek Develops Active Optical Cable Technology with Microsoft Research
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is named as a collaborator in large AI compute deployments (Nscale’s West Virginia AI campus), reinforcing demand for Azure and cloud services tied to AI GPU capacity. That supports long‑run cloud revenue upside. Nscale and Microsoft Announce Collaboration with NVIDIA and Caterpillar
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft reports progress on healthcare AI (MAI-DxO) with strong diagnostic results in testing; promising for long-term TAM but commercial and regulatory paths remain uncertain. Microsoft Pushes Toward ‘Medical Superintelligence’ in Healthcare
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader tech competition in quantum computing intensifies (IBM ramping hybrid quantum-classical work); Microsoft is active in quantum but the landscape remains long‑term and uncertain. The New Threat IBM’s Quantum Computing Research Poses to D-Wave
• Negative Sentiment: Security concern: reporting suggests Microsoft Intune tooling may have been used in an attack on Stryker — raises questions about enterprise security controls and could spur customer scrutiny or contract risk if such incidents scale. Microsoft Stock (NASDAQ:MSFT) Slips, Intune Tool May Have Been Used Against Stryker

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, Director John W. Stanton purchased 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $397.35 per share, with a total value of $1,986,750.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 83,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,339,651.75. This represents a 6.34% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total transaction of $5,045,695.92. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 137,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. This represents a 8.20% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $575.00 to $550.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $586.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. BNP Paribas Exane increased their target price on Microsoft from $632.00 to $659.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Citigroup cut their target price on Microsoft from $660.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, HSBC decreased their price target on Microsoft from $667.00 to $588.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $591.95.

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).