VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Buys 70,000 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al increased its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,710,300 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 70,000 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 5.7% of VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $885,850,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. AlphaQuest LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 342 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $170,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC now owns 359 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $178,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Seek First Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Seek First Inc. now owns 1,358 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $675,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Level Financial Advisors boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Level Financial Advisors now owns 2,680 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,333,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Red Mountain Financial LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Red Mountain Financial LLC now owns 2,761 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,373,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total transaction of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Goldman Sachs initiated coverage and analysts remain bullish, providing a sizeable price target that supports upside conviction for MSFT. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Azure adoption and partner wins continue: SymphonyAI announced multiple products powered by Microsoft Foundry/Azure, and Microsoft is pushing Copilot Checkout and Copilot training programs—these reinforce Azure consumption and commercial AI monetization pathways. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: The company’s public pledge drew political attention and praise (including from President Trump), which lowers regulatory blowback risk — a PR/regulatory win whose financial impact depends on how Microsoft implements the commitments. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are reacting to the commitment to pay higher power and infrastructure costs for AI data centers—this raises near‑term cost and margin uncertainty and is cited as a direct reason for today’s sell pressure. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Macro headwinds: a rotation from growth into value and renewed Fed/rate uncertainty increases duration risk for large-cap tech, amplifying downside when expectations for long‑dated AI payoff are uncertain. Read More.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $470.67 on Wednesday. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a market cap of $3.50 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.48, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.07. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $486.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $503.47.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The firm had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MSFT. Barclays reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $625.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Arete Research increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $710.00 to $730.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Raymond James Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research decreased their target price on Microsoft from $675.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $630.37.

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).