Insider Selling: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) EVP Sells 41,674 Shares of Stock

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

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock traded down $8.29 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $497.12. 17,757,524 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 35,552,965. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The business has a 50-day moving average of $458.23 and a 200-day moving average of $420.22. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $553.72. The stock has a market capitalization 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The business’s revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.65 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $502.00 to $522.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Bank of America upped their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Microsoft from $450.00 to $530.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 4th. Forty-two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $564.27.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,338,370,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 56,160.8% during the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 60,116,384 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,073,486,000 after purchasing an additional 60,009,531 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter worth $18,306,443,000. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at $6,928,664,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 717,942,580 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $347,211,391,000 after purchasing an additional 15,955,898 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

More Microsoft News

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

Microsoft Company Profile

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.