Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.

Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. reduced its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 408,200 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 3,900 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 5.3% of Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest position. Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $151,103,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Rochester Wealth Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.9% in the third quarter. Rochester Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 700 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $363,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC grew 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 valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC now owns 431 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $223,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Fischer Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Fischer Investment Strategies LLC now owns 697 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $337,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the period. Finally, Pollock Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% in the third quarter. Pollock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,805 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,453,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total value of $1,812,780.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 47,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,122,009.12. The trade was a 8.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total transaction of $519,111.08. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday. Evercore cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $580.00 to $510.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Dbs Bank decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $678.00 to $573.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on Microsoft from $675.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Forty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $560.75.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and bullish commentators continue to argue that Microsoft’s AI and Azure businesses can offset near-term pain, with reports highlighting strong cloud spending, Azure market-share gains, and the company’s “orchestration” opportunity in enterprise AI. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: DA Davidson reaffirmed a Buy rating and a $550 price target, reinforcing the view that MSFT still has meaningful upside if AI monetization and cloud growth continue. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is also getting attention for product-streamlining moves, including plans to consolidate Copilot into a unified app and strengthen enterprise AI workflows, which could improve focus but won’t move results immediately. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: There was also a separate report that a new federal bill could require AI-generated content to be labeled, which may affect Microsoft’s AI products in the future but does not appear to be an immediate earnings driver. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: The biggest drag is the Xbox reset: Microsoft is cutting thousands of gaming jobs, spinning off studios, and acknowledging the business is “not healthy,” which raises concerns about execution and profitability in gaming. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are also worrying that Microsoft’s aggressive AI infrastructure spending and higher memory costs could pressure margins, even as the company tries to show that the cuts improve efficiency. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Ongoing class-action and securities-fraud headlines are adding overhang, keeping some investors cautious while legal claims tied to prior AI disclosures work through the courts. Article Title

Microsoft Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $386.74 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.13. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $406.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $417.46. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The firm had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.46 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.67%.

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).