Insider Selling: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) EVP Sells $20,764,903.98 in Stock

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) EVP Amy Hood sold 41,674 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $498.27, for a total transaction of $20,764,903.98. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 533,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $265,888,830.48. The trade was a 7.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT traded down $8.29 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $497.12. 17,757,524 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 35,552,965. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $458.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $420.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The stock has a market cap of $3.69 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.11. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $349.20 and a fifty-two week high of $553.72.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The company had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.65 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Citizens JMP reaffirmed its “Market Outperform” rating and set a $550 price target, implying further upside from recent trading levels. The bullish view follows Microsoft’s recovery from its summer lows and reflects confidence in its cloud and AI businesses. Citizens JMP Microsoft price target
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft will begin reporting Azure revenue in addition to its growth rate, giving investors greater visibility into the scale and monetization of its cloud business. The change could improve transparency, although it also raises expectations for execution. Microsoft Azure revenue reporting
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s capital-return program remains supportive: dividends now represent the larger portion of shareholder distributions, while buybacks reduced the fiscal-year share count by only about 0.1%. This suggests a dependable income component, though repurchases are having a limited per-share impact. Microsoft dividends and buybacks
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft released a draft “Humanist AI” code of conduct emphasizing human control, limits on autonomous behavior and outside safety testing. The initiative may reduce regulatory and reputational risks, but could also reinforce debate over whether AI development should slow. Microsoft AI code of conduct
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s recent security update addressed nearly 1,000 vulnerabilities. Although patching is necessary, the scale of the disclosure may have heightened investor concerns about software-security exposure and potential remediation costs. Microsoft security patches
• Negative Sentiment: Broader technology weakness and renewed skepticism about aggressive AI investment are weighing on sentiment. Microsoft’s planned expansion of data-center capacity creates significant capital-spending and execution risks before AI revenue fully offsets infrastructure costs. Microsoft data-center expansion

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 717,942,580 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $347,211,391,000 after buying an additional 15,955,898 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $27,338,370,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 0.9% in the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 64,375,360 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $24,013,297,000 after acquiring an additional 543,172 shares during the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its position in Microsoft by 56,160.8% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 60,116,384 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,073,486,000 after acquiring an additional 60,009,531 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at $18,306,443,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, July 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $640.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Mizuho cut their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $490.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Forty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $564.27.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital solutions for consumers, businesses and public-sector organizations. Its products and services include the Windows operating system, Microsoft 365 productivity applications, Teams collaboration software, Dynamics business applications and Azure cloud computing services.

The company also operates LinkedIn, GitHub and Xbox, which includes gaming consoles, video games and related online services.