Conning Inc. Sells 3,216 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Conning Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 6.6% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 45,767 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 3,216 shares during the period. Conning Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $16,942,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 51.3% during the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 4.9% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Fischer Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Fischer Investment Strategies LLC now owns 697 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $337,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Pollock Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Pollock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,805 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,453,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the period. Finally, Better Money Decisions LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Better Money Decisions LLC now owns 3,498 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,740,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of a number of research reports. Argus lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $620.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. Wolfe Research reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $570.00 to $525.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 6th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $646.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Forty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $555.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 110,477 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,928,792.23. The trade was a 12.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total value of $519,111.08. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. This represents a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft joined 25 tech companies in urging U.S. policymakers not to impose broad restrictions on open-weight and open-source AI models, a stance that supports its broader AI ecosystem strategy and could help preserve flexibility for future product development. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft also backed a coalition letter with Nvidia, Meta, and other firms arguing that open-weight AI is important for U.S. leadership, reinforcing investor confidence that the company remains a major AI platform player rather than being boxed into one model provider. Business Insider article
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s expanded Databricks partnership extends a key cloud/data-AI relationship through the 2030s, which should help Azure adoption and strengthen long-term enterprise demand for Microsoft’s cloud services. TipRanks article
• Neutral Sentiment: Several previews ahead of Microsoft’s July 29 earnings report say the big investor focus will be FY2027 CapEx guidance and Azure growth, with analysts expecting strong results but worrying that AI infrastructure spending could weigh on free cash flow and margins. MarketBeat article
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms issued class-action alerts and deadline reminders tied to Microsoft securities-fraud claims, including allegations related to Copilot disclosures, which adds headline risk and may keep some investors cautious into earnings. GlobeNewswire article
• Negative Sentiment: Broader tech weakness tied to AI spending fears also weighed on Microsoft, as investors sold mega-cap names after seeing massive capital outlays across the sector and questioning near-term returns on AI investment. Fox Business article

Microsoft Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $381.70 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $398.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $408.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.27. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.84 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.72, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.46 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.67%.

About Microsoft

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).